Chapter 708: Isolation

“......For now, we managed to catch our breath.”

Corporal Lee Minjae sighed and opened his mouth.

“But what exactly is going on here?”

After holding back the zombies pouring in from the north.

The soldiers had temporarily retreated to a nearby fortress.

The soldiers and I stood atop the fortress and looked far into the distance.

There, we could still see a surging wave of black light.

“Zombies.”

The person looking at that place.

Lee Sanga sighed and spoke.

“I never imagined we’d end up struggling because of those things at this point.”

“Tell me about it.”

Just as she said.

Zombies had only been dangerous enemies in the early days of the apocalypse.

After a certain point, they were no longer enemies capable of threatening us.

“......Strange.”

And.

The reason that had been possible was simple.

Corporal Lee Minjae frowned as he spoke.

“Did the radio waves we sent not reach North Korea?”

The measure we took.

In other words.

Informing people of those zombies’ true nature and spreading the method to deal with them.

As long as you knew that method.

Unlike other monsters that were difficult to handle, they were relatively easy enemies.

They were enemies that made it easy to gain experience, awaken, or raise levels.

So most zombies within South Korean territory had been exterminated by awakened people.

‘Even in places where there were only a tiny number of survivors, or none at all, the zombies’ forces weren’t strong.’

In the end, even those who failed to overcome this apocalypse and perished.

Had at least succeeded in properly responding to and exterminating those zombies.

On the other hand.

“There were far too many of them to make any sense.”

Corporal Seo Suhyeok frowned as he spoke.

“As far as my vision could reach, everything was filled with those black monsters.”

“......That many?”

The monsters that had poured down from above.

The number of zombies was beyond common sense.

Even now, through my cooking, the Legion members could maintain an overwhelming compatibility advantage against those things.

The problem was their sheer number, enough to lightly ignore that compatibility advantage.

‘Enough to fill Suhyeok’s entire field of vision with monsters.’

Even if the entire former population of North Korea had gathered in front of us, that still should not have been possible.

And yet, monsters in that number had appeared because.......

There was only one thing I could guess.

“Monsters tended to appear especially often at military bases with powerful force, or in important cities.”

Of course, powerful monsters had occupied military bases.

And Seoul, where I met Jang Youngwoong, had been occupied by monsters so powerful that they could not even be compared to those in Gangwon Province or other regions.

‘The unidentified malice that struck our world.’

That malice had prioritized neutralizing humanity’s military power above all else.

And.

“North Korea...... was a country with powerful military strength compared to its population.”

It had also been the Republic of Korea Army’s main enemy.

But even putting that aside.

The nation called North Korea had strange aspects.

A country where roughly thirty-five percent of the population was treated as military manpower.

A country that possessed absurdly powerful military strength compared to its population and economic power, to the point that it was practically militarist.

And considering that the monsters of this world appeared with the priority of suppressing that military strength.

“Compared to its small population and national capacity...... an unknowably huge number of monsters may have appeared.”

“......!”

Compared to that military strength.

Its population and the capacity of the nation itself were extremely low.

Especially since it likely had little stockpiled food.

If monsters proportional to that military strength had appeared, then survival up there would likely have been an extreme-level difficulty.

‘Those were radio waves fired by none other than Corporal Lee Minjae. The source was Gangwon Province, too. Maybe they wouldn’t reach farther countries...... but there’s no way they wouldn’t have reached North Korea.’

Gangwon Province was a region bordering North Korea.

If the radio waves had failed to reach North Korea, then it would have been normal for them to fail to reach the southern regions of South Korea as well.

In other words.

Our response.

It was not that our warning about those zombies had failed to reach North Korea.

“From the moment those radio waves arrived...... there’s a high chance there were no awakened people left who could hunt zombies.”

“That’s......!”

“And I also doubt many people had equipment capable of receiving those radio waves in the first place.”

If that was the case.

‘Monsters instinctively seemed to avoid those zombies, so they wouldn’t have approached easily. The corpses of dead humans must have turned into zombies without issue.’

Most of the humans who lived up there would have become zombies.

As for the other monsters.

Most of them would have prevented zombification by eating one another, but.......

‘If even some of them weren’t completely eaten and rose as zombies.’

A zombie that successfully parasitized a monster’s body would hunt another monster.

Then that parasite would cling to the body of the dead monster as well.......

What if situations where they could rise like that and increase their numbers happened even a few times?

In terms of military strength, the South Korea we lived in was not inferior to North Korea either.

No, we were overwhelmingly superior.

So the number of monsters that appeared in each country was likely similar, or perhaps even greater on our side.

But on this side, we had hunted zombies as much as possible and reduced their numbers.

And on top of that, the monsters had eaten one another and reduced their own numbers.

‘......If those two premises didn’t exist.’

If the zombies had not been hunted.

If the zombies that gained strength that way increased their numbers by using other monsters as parasitic hosts instead of eating them.

“The monsters that appeared in North Korea...... most of them.”

That number would truly be beyond imagination.

Right.

“That black wave must be the result of them reviving as zombies instead of dying.”

A black wave whose end we could not even begin to measure.

Even after seeing it with our own eyes.

***

“Most of the monsters that appeared in North Korea.......”

“You mean.......”

At my words.

The others frowned.

I thought back to the monsters I had fought.

Even that was a number too large to recall one by one.

And even that.

Was probably only an extremely small portion of the total number of monsters that had appeared in South Korea.

Because monsters had hunted one another and reduced their own numbers, their numbers had ultimately remained at a scale the Legion could defeat.

‘Those things are different.’

Zombies do not eat other monsters.

They lay eggs inside them and revive them by increasing the number of parasites.

In other words.

For the years since the apocalypse began until now.

The number of monsters that appeared in North Korea had likely barely decreased, and had remained in a zombified state.

Most likely.

The inside of North Korea was packed full of zombies.

If there was one fortunate thing.

“We probably won’t be taken down by them immediately.”

As I said that.

I turned my head and looked at the surging black wave.

More precisely, at the enormous pillars standing in front of it.

CRRRRZZZZT.......

Enormous pillars flickering with lightning.

Around them, a considerable number of zombie corpses had piled up as dust.

‘......From a certain point on, they stopped approaching those pillars.’

Did they understand that approaching the pillars meant being burned to death by lightning?

The zombies did not come near the pillars, instead lingering around them.

‘Are they more intelligent than the parasites we knew?’

Now that I thought about it, it had been the same when that barrier opened.

They had not rammed their heads into the barrier and burned to death.

They had waited at the edge, where they could endure the heat of the barrier.

It was almost as if.

‘They knew they shouldn’t approach it...... and that it would open someday.’

Well.

Whatever the case.

“That barrier isn’t going to be breached, right?”

“Not immediately.”

At my words.

Jongdu, the designer of that wall, scratched his head and answered.

“Still, it isn’t perfectly safe forever. If we’d had more time and materials, we would’ve built something like a long Great Wall outright...... but as you know, that’s realistically impossible. It’s only frying the enemies with lightning, so there are physical gaps between each section.”

Just as he said.

That was not a truly long wall, but enormous pillars embedded at intervals of several meters.

“If there’s a monster among them that can withstand even that lightning, it could break the pillars and force its way in. If a pillar collapses, other zombies could come through afterward.”

“So there’s no room to let our guard down.”

“Yes. There probably aren’t many monsters that can break through that barrier with pure strength, but if there are monsters immune to lightning, the possibility is high.......”

If a pillar collapsed.

We would have to repair it as urgently as possible.

There was no telling where or what kind of monster might make a pillar collapse.

That meant we had to patrol this entire wide area as thoroughly as possible, but.

“Fortunately.”

Jongdu looked outside.

And where his gaze was directed.

VRRROOOM.......

“Let’s go, brothers!”

There were figures riding enormous motorcycles and racing near the pillars.

Green-skinned warriors could be seen.

“They’ve agreed to take charge of as much reconnaissance as possible, so we shouldn’t need to worry too much.”

“.......”

Wearing military uniforms made by the Legion members.

As if they were perfectly accustomed to it.

The Green Mane warriors raced along the rough road on huge bikes.

I stared blankly at that sight and thought.

‘When they fought us, I’m pretty sure those guys rode something like wolves.......’

We had succeeded in saving the tribe members.

But we had not been able to save the livestock originally raised by the Green Mane.

However.

‘The original Green Mane tribe was a race of the plains that served the Prairie God.’

As a race that ran across vast lands, they possessed surprisingly outstanding riding skills.

Their riding skills were so good that they could even handle bikes the Legion had hastily recovered and modified.

‘It’s a little bizarre, but...... I guess it doesn’t matter?’

It did feel a little awkward to see orcs wearing military uniforms and riding bikes.

But as a race of the plains, they apparently found patrol missions like that quite enjoyable.

While that barrier was maintained, the Green Mane warriors would patrol near it.

‘As long as that barrier is intact, the enemies to the north won’t immediately come pouring over us.’

......However.

If that thing had been perfect, we would not have needed to gather all the Legion members in the north in the first place.

“Which means it’s hard for us to cross over to the other side, too.”

“Yes.”

Jongdu scratched his head as he spoke.

“I’m moved that it’s somehow working properly, but...... as you know, that thing is highly experimental even from my perspective. It isn’t just a physical barrier...... it has all sorts of supernatural abilities added into it.”

Enormous pillars.

Strange characters were engraved into those pillars.

‘The knowledge possessed by the demon hunters.’

Magic circles that condensed mana and manifested it in a specific form.

‘The lightning itself must have been modified from Corporal Lee Minjae’s. Other mages’ knowledge was probably included too.’

The magic of powerful mages.

‘I can also feel the power of shamanic arts from the ground.......’

Borjin’s shamanic arts.

“And besides those, it was made by all kinds of awakened people from the Legion working together.”

Awakened people who passed level 30 reached the stage where they could do more than simply use skills, becoming able to apply their power.

Awakened people above level 30 had begun appearing one by one, and that thing was the result of all of them being deployed together.

And because such a large-scale attempt was a first for the Legion as well.

“To focus on blocking the enemy, a rule has been applied that prevents everything from passing through.”

“So it doesn’t distinguish between enemy and ally.”

“Yes. I thought we could just make it attack only one side, but...... the awakened people on the magic and shamanic arts side said doing it that way would cut the power in half. They said it had to be simple, in the form of excluding everything, to produce enough power to block the enemies.”

Just as there might be zombies capable of ignoring that electricity and crossing over.

There were also unit members who could ignore that powerful electricity and cross over.

No, that was not all.

If I granted the unit members immunity to electricity through my cooking.

It would be possible to cross the wall while maintaining that barrier.

Back when I crossed the barrier alone in the past, I had been the only one with [Absolute Taste], so I had to cross into Gyeonggi Province alone.

But now, every unit member could use the power of [Absolute Taste].

However, in that case.......

‘We wouldn’t be able to use the power of insect hunting.’

One cooking effect per person.

In the case of [Absolute Taste (Enhanced)], stacking was possible.

But unfortunately, those who were not chefs could not receive the enhanced effect.

In other words.

“As things stand, we can’t advance into other regions.”

“Haa.”

Despite the barrier having opened.

The Legion’s advance into other regions had been blocked.

***

Not long ago.

I had declared through the System to the awakened people of other regions that the Legion would go find them.

Now that the barrier had opened, there was a high chance other regions were also in chaos.

We had to join up with survivors in other regions as quickly as possible, and incorporate the power of those regions into the System as well.

We had no time to be stuck here.

‘The land route is blocked.’

The only route from South Korea to the continent.

The road through North Korea had been sealed off.

The Legion was fundamentally a force composed mostly of ground troops.

Since we were not in an environment where we could operate fighter jets like in the past, there was no helping that.

Because of that, our first-priority plan had basically been advancing onto the continent by land.

And that plan had collapsed.

“......What about going by sea? Wasn’t advancing toward Japan one of our plans?”

“Ah, we did test that part.”

If the land route was blocked, the next thing that came to mind was the sea route.

There was even a country across the sea nearby.

But at my words.

Corporal Lee Gongwoo, the Engineer Squad Leader, answered with an apologetic expression.

“We made several ships as sturdy as possible and sent them far out, but...... most of them lost contact before getting very far.”

“Which means.”

The ocean’s area is even larger than land.

Naturally, monsters would have appeared there as well.

And.

“It means the sea is overflowing with monsters capable of instantly destroying even ships we built with all our strength.”

The Pope we fought had originally been a species that lived underwater.

But the Pope had weakened after failing to adapt to the environment on land.

A considerable number of monsters that appeared on land must have died immediately after failing to adapt to that environment.

“On land, we can fully utilize the Legion’s fighting power...... but the sea is different.”

“.......”

“Even if we somehow went out on ships, there’s no way we could easily deal with monsters attacking from beneath the sea. If those ships collapsed.......”

The sea was the opposite.

Monsters that would have survived if they had appeared on land would all have died.

But countless monsters capable of adapting to the sea were likely lurking there.

“If neither the land route nor the sea route works.”

At Corporal Lee Gongwoo’s words.

Corporal Seo Suhyeok, who had been quietly listening to the conversation, opened his mouth.

“What about the sky?”

“The sky, you mean.”

“The air.”

Corporal Seo Suhyeok spoke while pointing at the map.

“We have Bimana. Originally, when Sergeant Shin was dropped in another country, our goal was to finish the Conquest War as quickly as possible and head directly to China through Bimana. If I remember correctly, the engineers were also told back then to prepare so we could fly all the way to Chinese territory.”

“Ah, that’s true. In fact, all the equipment needed for ultra-long-distance movement has already been installed.”

That made me a little worried.

‘What’s the situation like in China?’

We only shared a border with North Korea.

But over there, they bordered more than one or two countries.

‘Since Karhin, a marquis-class vampire, is holding out there, they probably won’t collapse easily, but.......’

I could not help worrying.

“I heard there is also a fairly large-scale survivor force in Chinese territory. They’re people friendly toward Sergeant Shin. If so, we don’t need to go far. We only need to fly to China.”

Separate from my worry.

Corporal Seo Suhyeok continued speaking.

“After reaching China, we join up with the survivors there. Then we advance into other countries by land. Wouldn’t that work?”

At his words.

“That’s impossible.”

The one who answered was Corporal Lee Minjae.

“Why? If we use Bimana, movement should be more than possible.......”

“It would be possible. The problem lies elsewhere.”

Corporal Lee Minjae looked outside and spoke.

“That lightning in the barrier. What do you think it’s made of?”

“......Ah.”

The countless zombies lurking to the north.

The enormous lightning barrier blocking them.

“As you can tell by looking at that lightning, I also participated in designing that thing. Since it was made by so many different awakened people, the part I understand is only a very small fraction...... but there is still something I know.”

“That is.”

“It’s maintaining lightning comparable to my maximum firepower over that much range. The mana going into it must be beyond imagination.”

That wall was something that imitated the barrier originally created by the System.

Instead of the intense heat emitted by the original barrier, it was wrapped in Corporal Lee Minjae’s lightning.

And no matter how powerful the Legion was.

Compared to everyone belonging to the System, we were only an extremely small fraction.

It was not easy for the Legion, a single awakened force, to imitate the barrier the System had created and maintained.

Therefore.

“That mana is coming from Bimana?”

“Yes.”

The underground mine located beneath Bimana.

If not for the near-infinite mana of Morzan inside it.

It would have been impossible to implement in the first place.

“Using Bimana makes it possible to advance overseas. Not just to China, but even farther. But...... if we launch Bimana, we have no choice but to cut the mana pipes connected to the barrier. Then that barrier will stop functioning.”

“The zombies will move south.”

“It’s possible if we’re willing to abandon South Korean territory. But if not...... moving Bimana is not an option we can choose.”

At those words.

The others frowned even more deeply.

“......The sea route won’t work, and the air route won’t work either.”

“And we can’t just stay holed up inside South Korea.”

“Is there any way.......”

Everyone looked troubled.

And.

“A way.”

I looked at them and cautiously opened my mouth.

“There isn’t °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° none.”

“......What?”

They looked at me with surprised eyes.

Receiving those gazes, I thought for a moment.

“In the end, all we have to do is deal with those zombies, right?”

“That is true, but.”

“The problem is that it’s impossible, isn’t it? No matter how strong we are, that endless number is.......”

Listening to them speak.

I looked outside the fortress.

A horde of zombies filled everything as far as my eyes could reach.

But.

In the end, those things were only one species called zombies.

In that case.

“I...... have prepared something of my own, too.”

Grin.

“This actually works out well.”

“What do you mean?”

“I thought it might be a more difficult situation, but if all we have to do is take those things out, then there is a way.......”

There is.

The very moment I was about to say that.

“......Huh?”

Looking at the horde of zombies.

I had no choice but to stop speaking.

“Sergeant Shin?”

“What is it?”

The others looked at me with puzzled eyes.

But.

I did not have the composure to look at their faces.

Because.

“......What is that?”

The countless corpses.

The horde I had thought was merely gathered there motionlessly.

Rustle.......

That horde was splitting apart.

Creating an enormous path.