April Vengeance (15)

Hunger is the force that makes parents eat their children. The flesh of things that are no longer human would have been easier to tear and eat than that of one’s own offspring. So, there was no reason for the sight of the filthy man not to be lonely to seem strange. Taboos broken together are no longer taboos.

Puk! Puk! Puk-puk-puk!

Marble was a soft stone. Dull chunks broke off as bullets poured down on it. The once luxurious entrance to the hall. A hail of milky, sharp pellets rained down on Gyeo-ul, hiding behind the statue. A heavy warning from ‘Survival Sense.’ Gyeo-ul ducked his body. Thud! Where his legs had been just a moment before, a huge head fell. Painful features. The eyeless eyes seemed to question the boy.

What to do.

Loud gunshots echoed. Dozens of men and women, angered at Gyeo-ul, were armed with automatics. There was even a rocket rolling around. Yet what rained down were only small-caliber bullets. It seemed they didn’t know how to use anything other than rifles. Their aiming was messy with no bracing. Well, they must’ve been ordinary civilians. Handling rifles with decaying heads was astonishing enough. Even so, their numbers made them threatening.

Do I have to kill them?

Finger inside the trigger guard, he hesitated. Even if they were ordinary people, it would be hard to talk in this situation. Let alone with lesions on their brains.

With luck, maybe a few could be subdued alive. Otherwise, there’d be no passing through. Beyond the broken barricade and the hall littered with empty ammo boxes was the final destination, the grand galley. There would be a survivor group inside. Along with the crazed cannibals and the unspeakable provisions they’d hoarded. Gyeo-ul could only hope there were some at the back…

He felt no motivation. He chewed on it alone. Perhaps he should’ve listened to the FBI agent after all.

Either way, time was running out. The statue he leaned on was already unrecognizable. Even the pedestal was unstable. Five more minutes at most, if he was lucky. Had he stalled too long? Blind mutants were descending the stairs in front of him. Stumbling and groping, pushing through. Their flowing motion was like a thick liquid. The roulette rolling spent shell casings ultimately had no effect.

Gyeo-ul aimed his rifle at the approaching mutants. The sights aligned quickly. But he did not pull the trigger. After some thought, he quietly lowered the muzzle.

‘The commotion is behind me.’

The blind ones were in an agitated state, snapping their heads sharply. Ddadadadak. Filthy spit flew out through between teeth as they collided. To creatures that had learned to use human weapons, gunshots were a signal indicating the presence of a host. Gyeo-ul waited for the group with melting faces to pass him by.

Kyaaaaak!

The ones hit by gunfire became guides. Hearing their screams, the rest of the crowd set their direction. Behind the statue was a safe zone. The mutant group split apart before Gyeo-ul’s eyes. There were some close calls. Those pushed aside or the odd ones that came straight at him. Somehow, they formed a wall. There was no gap to slip through.

Gyeo-ul leaped backward. He kicked at the marble group sculpture and flipped his body. Over the wall of living corpses, avoiding hands clawing at empty air, landing rather clumsily. But it was fine. Thud. The sound of his step and collapse to one knee was drowned out by the raucous cacophony of guns.

Now, Gyeo-ul was wedged between clumps of blind mutants. It was the second time today he was trapped in a maze howling with hunger. The pouring hail of bullets made it all the harder, but it was doable. Using walking corpses as cover, he began his skirmish.

Tatata-tang!

With a three-round burst, he blew off a woman’s head. Gyeo-ul moved away quickly. Mutants crowded in. They formed a thick protective wall. It didn’t last long, but it was enough time for him to get off several more shots. Tatata-tang! Tatang! Tatata-tang! He fired two or three rounds into each target because of their tumors. The swollen lumps could absorb the bullets.

Even so, some did not die instantly.

Yes. They were human. Seeing their dead companions, they wailed bitterly. Different than the survivors he expected in the grand galley, or these monsters he now used as shields.

“Ho-neyyy! Nooo!”

A man threw himself over his dead wife in grief. Bang! Gyeo-ul put a bullet in his head and felt deeply uncomfortable. The repulsion grew stronger each time he pulled the trigger.

But halting the skirmish was impossible. The crossfire warning lines were so many as to be confusing. He began to regret trying to incapacitate the rotten man earlier by surprise. But it was the best decision then, and he’d have done it again.

Inevitable resignation was best hurried.

Meanwhile, the mutants searched frantically for the now invisible Gyeo-ul. Whenever he fired among them, he had to move quickly. Taking cover behind the crowd as they flocked, maintaining continuous aimed shooting. The mutants smashed apart before his eyes. It was the firepower of those who wanted him dead.

For targets as tightly clustered as aggregated mutants, even near-missing aim sufficed.

Blood and flesh sprayed like a summer downpour. The boy could not stay clean. So much the better. In blind creatures that distinguished prey by smell, there was nothing wrong with reeking of plague from one’s whole body. The detective would have freaked out if he knew.

He was just careful not to get it in his mouth. Not after seeing that rotten man.

‘I’ll have to control my pace.’

Now Gyeo-ul adjusted the tempo of the skirmish. He slowed down in killing those on the other side, coordinating with the rate the mutants were going down. Ideally, when his cover disappeared, the other group would be neutralized at the same time.

Then came a blood-curdling shriek.

“Whyyy! Why won’t it hit? Why won’t you dieee?!”

It was that same man. Unlike when he’d run from Gyeo-ul before, now he was in a state of utter fury, his eyes bloodshot and white with rage even from a distance. Unable to contain his anger, he limped at speed. His wounds must have healed enough to walk; it was truly a body that was no longer human.

Mutants clung to the man. He shoved them aside to approach. In fact, using mutants as shields, the man was at an advantage over Gyeo-ul.

Bang! Gyeo-ul shot him in the knee. Crack. The leg bent grotesquely.

“Augh! It hurts! Gyeo-ul! I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you, you bastard!”

His companions charged out to rescue him. Some shielded the man with clumsy movements, while others, even as they were seized by mutants, furiously fired their guns. Their accuracy dropped the more desperate they became. Chk-chk. Some fumbled as if they’d forgotten how to change magazines.

In the end, they all wound up like that. It was a farce and tragedy born from low intelligence compounded by extreme agitation. Criticism and insults hurled at the boy were nothing but monotonous. Idiot, fool! Their unbefittingly simple words could not even begin to reflect the fierce emotion in their expressions.

And then, the mutants started to tear them apart.

‘What?’

Gyeo-ul was caught off guard. He’d thought those people, monstrous as they were, would not be attacked. Even on deck 5, the man had run through mutants as if it was unmanned terrain. Was it because they used firearms? Because of the smell of gunpowder? Because their voices sounded human? Or… had these things learned something in the meantime?

The rotten man and his companions were shredded in moments, before Gyeo-ul could intervene. It was a violent scrap over a food bowl. The starving beasts pulled at their bodies, blood gushing in the air as their flesh became taut ropes. Bones snapping, flesh tearing.

They were being treated as food, not as hosts. To mutants who infected living humans and devoured dead ones, the man and his companions were the same as corpses.

Gyeo-ul frowned at this dismaying sight. Ever since he got on this ship, nothing had gone well. Not even the reason for coming this far had been pleasant.

“You…you… it’s…because…of you…!”

The man being eaten spewed his anger at Gyeo-ul as he passed by. Blood-foam gurgled in his throat. It didn’t look like he’d last long. Gyeo-ul, passing silently, chose one of the weapons the rotten man and his companions hadn’t been able to use. A bloodstained, rusted machine gun.

Chk. The charging handle was hard to pull, but the weapon still worked.

Inside the broken barricade, empty ammo cans were everywhere. Was this the last line of defense that the governor set up before being driven into the grand galley? Gyeo-ul kicked through the piled cans. Crash. The noisy clatter of falling metal. He had the mutants’ attention again.

He didn’t care. There, his foot caught on something. The weight of a fully loaded ammo can. There were five. Enough. He mounted the machine gun on the barricade. Then, he pulled the trigger.

Kakakakang! Kakak! Kakakak!

Gunshots sharper than usual. Gyeo-ul unleashed indiscriminate fire on those who’d chased him all the way from the casino. Click—whenever a round jammed, it was a hassle to pull the handle and clear it. It was the kind of weapon that would malfunction after just a day in this bad environment.

The blind, charging monsters. There were rarely smooth paths, so they just became corpses caught on obstacles. Their numbers were greatly reduced to begin with. One that ran straight through was ripped apart, its body shattering in the same posture it charged.

The fifth ammo can wasn’t even needed. But to be sure, he loaded it. Just in case negotiations with the governor didn’t go smoothly.

Crossing the now silent hall again, Gyeo-ul approached the rotten man.

He was already dead. Not that Gyeo-ul had expected otherwise.

Gyeo-ul tilted his head. Disgusted. As he kept existing in worlds that were content with delusion, both positive and negative stimuli had long since ceased to affect him. Was it because he lived without regrets that nothing could shake his mind anymore? Or so he’d thought.

‘Those who became monsters but didn’t eat people. And those who ate people and survived as monsters. There’s really no need to sort which side has the human heart left.’

But can you really call this dead man a person?

He thought again. Himself, a being with only a mind and no body. People of the outside world with bodies but no minds. And finally, virtual personalities with no real essence. From Gyeo-ul’s perspective, there weren’t any among these that could truly be called human.

Body, mind, essence. There was nothing about them that didn’t fit the conditions for humanity. Gyeo-ul believed so. Whether here or out there, both worlds were equally devoid of people.

I shouldn’t give in to hate like this. Gyeo-ul sighed.

He needed to vent. If only he could kill something that looked like a person but wasn’t one, that would be good. The weight of his bitterness might, for once, feel refreshing. But it was a sensation growing ever harder to obtain.

Would the governor be able to save himself? At the least, he should have picked out a bone he didn’t need. Gyeo-ul, machine gun in hand, headed toward the passageway leading to the grand galley.

—————————= Author’s Note —————————=

#Q&A

Q. Kaligos: @My childhood innocence is being recharged! I have a question, Author. Until now, only up to gamma had been mentioned as grades for enhanced mutants, so I thought gamma was the final stage. But now, another grade appeared. Does the mutant enhancement stage go to omega? Or is there anything past that? And, if you gain Morgellons antibodies by achieving Plague Immunity, does that mean there will be no more game overs from infection? And has Gyeo-ul ever cleared a run in this world? I also hope this childlike story will be released as a paperback or ebook!

A. Yes. The final grade for enhanced mutants is omega. To clarify, grades can also increase according to criteria other than direct combat ability.

Plague Immunity is a condition for vaccine development, and if there isn’t a power base capable of researching a vaccine, it’s a benefit that’s essentially meaningless except for the player himself. Once vaccinated, death by infection disappears.

Lastly, Gyeo-ul has never cleared this world in any episode.

Q. Spinmit: @I thought my brain had rotted, but after reading your work, I realized my childhood innocence has fermented. Who should I give this overflowing innocence to? Demon Sultan won’t answer me and Crawling Chaos curses me out every time. Can you recommend someone?

A. Of course, you should give it to me. I feel like I’ll die from innocence deficiency and sleep deprivation. 🙂

Q. JangSEE: @You can answer if it’s not a spoiler, right? Are the original creators still alive? Or have they already been completely wiped out instead of frying chicken, as the rumors say?

A. Some are alive, some are dead.

Q. NovelJason: @If you wrote wuxia, would it be traditional Jin Yong-style wuxia? If you do write one, would it be your own original world? (Personally, I love Jin Yong’s wuxia novels, so I’d be happy if you wrote one. Haha.)

A. Traditional wuxia doesn’t sell… According to one novel’s buyer stats, 74% were over 50. Now it’s become an even more niche genre than a columbarium. I don’t think I’ll ever write traditional wuxia.

Q. RGZ95: @I enjoyed today’s battle scene! The action always plays out so naturally in my head, I read it with no resistance. Thank you for filling me with childhood innocence again today!

A. Maybe because I wrote this part while looking at an actual cruise ship’s floor plans, it ended up longer than expected. Hmm…

Now that I’m thinking about writing a chat-centric part after a long time, I’m both excited and a little worried.

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Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep