Chapter 712: Northward

“......Senior.”

“Oh. It’s been a while.”

Not long after Sergeant Lee Minjae managed to make contact.

A man arrived near the fortress where our unit was stationed.

“Uh, yeah. It has been a while.......”

The cook from Gyeonggi Province.

A veteran cook who had even learned overseas, Howard.

And that Howard looked at me and said,

“......I’m sorry to say this as soon as we meet again after so long.”

“Mm?”

“I...... felt grateful to you, Senior. Thanks to you, I realized a lot of things, and as a cook, I grew several stages as well. But...... even if it is you, Senior, there are some things I have to say.”

He turned his head slightly and looked at me.

“You...... dogshit son of a bitch.......”

“Haha.”

“I came running happily because you called me after so long......!”

No, to be precise.

He was looking around me.

“This is a bit...... too much, isn’t it......!”

At the countless hordes of zombies.

And said that.

***

“Da, damn it.......”

I had heard that when he was first contacted, he had willingly answered my call.

But after actually arriving here and hearing the details.

“I should have been suspicious when a man who hadn’t contacted me at all suddenly called me...... I shouldn’t have come running over so innocently right away.......”

“Exactly. You should have suspected people a little.”

“Like you have any right to say that......!”

He kept grumbling in a small voice.

But he had already come all the way here.

“The cooks you demanded are me and this guy, two in total.”

“......!”

I could not send him back now.

So I put an arm around his shoulders and said,

“What do you mean, two......!”

“Why. You and me. That makes two.”

Basically, I was the only cook affiliated with the Legion.

But if we included cooks in South Korea, that number increased by one.

And since what they demanded was as many cooks as possible.

“Why didn’t you just go alone if you were going......!”

That was how I ended up calling Howard here.

And.

I looked at his face, which had gone pale with horror.

A face I had not seen in quite a while.

And.

[Ingredient Appraisal (Enhanced)]

[Lv.31 Orthodox Cook]

As much as that time had passed.

A status window with quite a few changes appeared before my eyes.

'His level is already?'

I could not help being a little surprised when I saw that level.

He had already belonged among the high-level awakened before.

But I had not imagined he would have broken through level 30 in that time.

'Well. His ability itself was outstanding to begin with.'

This guy had been feeding an enormous number of people with that small amount of ingredients, even in Gyeonggi Province where ingredients were difficult to obtain.

A cook whose skills were already excellent.

Through the alliance with the Legion, he had become able to receive a sufficient supply of ingredients.

On top of that.

'He even exchanged teachings with me.'

By gaining insight into an area he had not known before.

He must have gone through tremendous growth after that.

Of course, this guy was not the only one who benefited from that experience.

[Great Teacher]

After exchanging teachings with him.

I succeeded in obtaining one trait.

A power that allowed me to borrow one trait or skill from a student who had gained enlightenment through my teaching.

The skill I borrowed thanks to that.

[Ingredient Management] was still being used usefully even now.

'Orthodox Cook, huh.'

As a cook, this guy valued fundamentals and thorough ingredient management.

So he had probably specialized further in that direction.

If we looked only at the aspect of making food, there were many parts where he might be better than me.

“......Two?”

However.

As it looked at me and Howard, that goblin opened its mouth as if dissatisfied.

“Yo, you. Survivors, many....... No, no more? Co...... oks.”

“We are not exactly overflowing with spare people either. These two are all the cooks.”

“Re, really......?”

“Yeah. Like you asked, I brought every one of them.”

Even though I had brought Howard too, who was horrified and did not want to go, it was still dissatisfied.

I also let out a hollow laugh as I looked at it.

“Even if there are only two of us, both of us are skilled cooks. I don’t know what you want, but for most things, the two of us should be enough.”

“Sa, saying that...... with your, own mouth.......”

There was extremely little movement in the muscles of the corpse’s face.

But in the look it gave me and Howard.

'Only two.......'

I could feel that taste of disappointment.

“......No, no choice.”

Even while feeling disappointed.

In the end, it nodded.

“Ev, even two is fine....... Fo, follow...... me.”

“Ah, but. There is one condition.”

Going was fine.

But we had to demand what we needed too.

“That safety guarantee you mentioned. I can’t trust that at all.”

“......Ke, keep. Promise.”

“I’m asking how we’re supposed to trust that promise. So.”

I pointed behind me with my finger and said,

“We are taking troops to escort us.”

“Es, escort......?”

The people there were.

Corporal Jeon Gwangil and Corporal Seo Suhyeok.

On top of them, abnormal eater Lee Hyeonjin and demon hunter Choi Wonjun.

The group also included Changsu from our allied guild, Avengers.

“Those guys are coming with us too. If you don’t accept this condition, the deal is off.”

At my words.

The creature tilted its head.

“Es, escort...... not good.”

“Does that mean you refuse?”

“N, no. Ad, advice.......”

They were a group made up of people who counted among the strongest even by Legion standards.

“Escort, no matter how many.......”

But the creature looked at those soldiers and said,

“If we, try to kill. Die.”

“.......”

“A, all...... die. Me, meaningless.......”

At those words.

The unit members frowned.

“That bastard.......”

Blatant disregard.

However.

As if it genuinely intended to advise us, the creature shook its head and said,

“We, us...... keep promise. So...... meaningless.”

“That is for us to judge. If you won’t accept this condition either, then the deal is off.”

“If re, refuse. Children...... come down. Even, then......?”

“Even then. You said you wanted to make a deal, so it makes no sense for you not to accept a condition like this.”

“Ig, ignoring advice?”

At those words.

The creature shook its head back and forth and said,

“Lo, loss is, yours....... Co, condition. Accept....... Do, as you want.......”

With this.

The people who would move in response to the zombies’ deal were decided.

[Five Loaves and Two Fish]

Smoothly.

Light appeared over my body and the bodies of the soldiers behind me.

“Guide us.”

At the same time as “lightning resistance” settled into the soldiers’ bodies.

The goblin’s steps headed beyond the barrier.

The first official diplomatic moment between North Korea and South Korea since the apocalypse.

***

Tingle.......

Through lightning resistance, we endured the lightning of that barrier and crossed over.

Thanks to the powerful resistance, there was nothing wrong with our bodies, but there was a slight stinging sensation.

And.

Step.......

The sensation I felt as soon as I stepped beyond the barrier.

The remains of zombies burned by that lightning.

And an enormous number of corpses from the zombies that had fought us in the previous battle were sprawled around indiscriminately.

'This does not feel pleasant.'

The unpleasant ground.

The overwhelming stench of rot reaching my nose.

“Those things smell way too bad.”

And most of that rotten smell did not come from the corpses on this ground.

It originated from the standing corpses over there.

“You’re going to clear them out, right?”

At my words.

The goblin calmly started walking forward.

—Krrrk.......

As it moved away from us.

The nearby zombies immediately reacted.

—Kaaaaaaak!!!

The zombies that had been stopped began to move.

They bared their teeth at us and tried to move their steps toward us.

At that very moment.

“Shaaaaaaaaaaaaaak!!!”

The goblin looked at those zombies and let out a rough metallic sound.

Then.

—Krrrk.......

The zombies that had been full of momentum as they tried to attack us.

That momentum shrank in an instant.

Smoothly......

Just like when that creature came here.

The horde of zombies that had seemed to have no reason at all began to split neatly in half.

“Co, come...... close.”

“.......”

“If you, move...... away. Ca, cannot take. Responsibility.......”

The goblin began walking between them.

I followed close behind it and thought,

'Do zombies obey the words of a more evolved individual?'

I glanced to the side.

Krrrrk.

The ones looking at us, baring their teeth and trying to reach out their hands.

The instinct of these things to attack living beings itself had not vanished.

However.

Halt.......

Their hands stopped just before touching our skin.

It was easy enough to tell that this was because of that goblin’s influence.

How long had we walked while following the goblin?

I suddenly felt a sense of something out of place.

'The zombies around us.......'

The zombies we had fought.

The zombies currently gathered near that barrier were nothing more than walking corpses.

But.

Was it because we had walked deep into this black wave?

'Their presence...... has changed a little.'

For some reason.

That energy had begun to change quite a bit.

No, it was not only their energy.

“That one. It’s huge.”

“It probably wasn’t always like that, was it?”

“No.”

A monster visible far away.

Its skin was stretched strangely tight.

It looked as though a monster that had originally had an ordinary appearance had grotesquely swollen up.

Slide......

And that was not all.

A gaze I felt from somewhere.

When I turned my head toward that gaze, I saw zombies in the distance staring blankly at us.

—.......

The other zombies were in a situation where their instinct to rush at us was being suppressed by the goblin.

But those things were different.

They were merely staring blankly at us, [observing] us.

Only after I discovered them.

Did I understand the cause of the strange presence I had felt.

Not only from those things.

But the sense of strangeness I had felt from the moment I first saw that goblin.

'Breathing.'

In the past, when we had first come down from the 423rd Battalion.

When we had tried to retake the unit’s barracks in order to secure a safe base.

I had made a dish that enhanced the hearing of the unit members in order to hunt the monsters occupying the barracks.

The unique rough breathing of zombies.

It was meant to locate the zombies hiding inside the barracks through that breathing.

......Those things were different.

'Their breathing...... is stable.'

Things with stable breathing.

From that calm breathing, there was none of the rough feeling unique to zombies.

I could instinctively sense it in that instant.

'That goblin called itself an adult.'

And.

It had called the zombies that fought us children.

If so, those things were.

'About adolescents...... maybe.'

Several years since the Day of Destruction.

Those things too.

They were zombies that had gone through evolution during those years.

'How many of those things are there?'

Even just looking at that goblin.

Although it had taken the body of a weak monster as its host, a strange pressure could be felt from that body.

It was probably a fairly high-level strong one.

The bodies the zombies used as hosts alone were threatening enough.

But those things evolved further from there.

Through that evolution, they even reached a realm stronger than their hosts.

I had not fought them directly.

But as for how strong they were...... I would only know by experiencing it.

“......No matter how much I think about it, I’m not sure this is right.”

And.

As we passed between those zombies, Corporal Seo Suhyeok muttered.

“I am not doubting your judgment, Sergeant Shin, but...... in a situation where we have not even confirmed whether the hostages they mentioned really exist or not. I think it might be better to turn back even now.”

“Well, that is not wrong either.”

There were already many zombies.

And now even those “adolescents” had begun to appear.

If that goblin suddenly betrayed us here and we were attacked.

It would become a crisis incomparable to the previous war, where we had fought a frontal battle.

'If we are going to turn back, now is the last chance.'

But.......

My instinct was shouting.

'Zombies appeared even in Dasmur.'

From what I had seen so far.

The phenomenon that appeared commonly in worlds that had gone through this apocalypse was the appearance of invading monsters.

And...... the emergence of those zombies.

'Until now, we got through it simply because we dealt with them well. But.......'

If the emergence of zombies was the only common point among worlds that had undergone apocalypse.

Then I had to understand this phenomenon precisely.

On top of that.

I recalled the scene I had seen in the memory of the flesh inside me.

A sight even I had not known, but the flesh inside me had definitely perceived.

'Those bugs.'

Right before the [Day of Destruction] occurred.

The countless swarms of bugs that had been gnawing away at the wall of our world.

“......It might actually be a good opportunity.”

I had a feeling.

That I had to learn more about those bugs.