Chapter 719: Hiding Something

“So...... you have to refuse too.”

At those words.

Howard and I looked at that kid with dumbfounded expressions.

“So, the reason we have to refuse is.”

“Not because it’s to save more people’s lives, or anything like that.......”

As if our reaction did not matter at all.

The kid stood up from where they had been sitting, blocked our way, and shouted confidently.

“Because I hate the sight of those things!”

Well, I mean.

It was not that I could not understand.

But in a situation where other people’s lives were at stake, it was a statement that could only feel a little absurd.

“Most of my friends died to those corpses.”

“.......”

“Solgae, Pung, Gangdol, Jebi...... even the captain. All of them.”

Names with no consistency.

They sounded a little awkward even for North Korean names, but they were probably the names of the people that kid called friends.

The reason that kid had not cooperated with the zombies was purely because those friends had been killed by the zombies.

'Well. We’ve gone through that too.'

Ariella’s vampires.

Borjin’s Green Mane tribe.

When accepting forces that had once killed our allies as well, there had been a lot to think about.

But, how should I put it.

'Was it that kind of feeling?'

The depth of the kid’s conflict felt a little different.

It did not feel like the result of seriously agonizing over which side weighed more heavily, the lives of dead comrades or the lives of the living who might die in the future.

It felt like the kid had simply reached a conclusion while thinking only of the dead comrades.

In truth, it was not strange.

“I thought maybe this was some impressive guy...... but in the end, it’s just a little kid.”

Just as Howard said.

That kid was, at most, a child in the early teens.

There were children in our unit too.

But kids these days were quite precocious to begin with.

And after going through that ruin, most of them had matured quickly.

But this place was North Korea.

A country with one of the strangest structures in the world was lacking compared to other countries in terms of the quality of education.

On top of that, I recalled that child’s clothing and what had just been said.

'Old cloth...... and friends’ names that don’t sound like names of normal people.'

The kid spoke rudely and without restraint even to us, who were adults in our own way.

Even imagining a time when those clothes had once been intact.

There was a high chance they had not been normal clothing.

In other words.

'This is not a child who received proper education.'

Separate from the fact that the average quality of education in North Korea was low.

This was a child with a high possibility of not even having received that low-quality education at all.

This country’s economy was not particularly good.

And education was something that cost more than one might think.

The further an economic level fell behind, the more the population of children unable to receive basic education increased exponentially.

Children who did not receive proper education and wandered the streets.

They were apparently called street swallows, or something like that.

'That child and the parents held hostage were still on the financially better-off side.'

This kid was.......

Someone from the other side.

If the kid was still young and had not even had a proper opportunity to learn.

It was unavoidable that the kid’s thinking would remain at a shallow stage.

It was certainly pitiful.

But if that was the case.

“......Yeah, yeah. I get it.”

“You get it? Then you’re saying you won’t help those corpses either, right?”

“Yeah, yeah. So. Could you step aside for a moment?”

“If that’s the case!”

When I asked the kid to move aside.

The kid nodded as if I had thought well of it and moved aside.

“You made the right choice. When I first rebelled against those things, I was a little scared too, but in the end, they didn’t do anything to me.”

Slide.......

“That means they can’t do without us. They’re probably in a position where they can’t remove us easily either, so if we all act together, those things won’t be able to harm us. But.......”

At that moment.

The kid looked at us and said,

“......Where are you going?”

“Ah, it isn’t that we’re especially going to cooperate with those things.”

Howard and I passed by that little kid.

“I’m just interested in those parasites.”

“Whaaat......!”

And entered the room where the insects were.

***

“Y, you traitors......!”

This was another chef we had met after quite a long time.

Of course, there were a lot of things that bothered me in many ways.

Just as when I first met Howard, I was curious what kind of ability the kid might have.

'The kid refused those zombies’ orders, but nothing happened.'

That part, too.

There was a point that bothered me a little.

But.

'I’m a little busy right now.'

Unfortunately.

That was not what mattered immediately.

It was not as if we were in a situation where we had to persuade that kid somehow, like when I first met Howard.

Nor did we have enough room to talk about each other’s cooking right now.

Then.

“I trusted you......! You trash-like bastards!”

Rather than deliberately holding a conversation with that kid.

Wouldn’t it be right to do the thing we originally came here to do?

“They look grotesque.”

“What’s this....... As expected of someone who only made high-class cuisine, are you bad at touching things like this?”

“No way. I just said it. Senior thinks of me too much like a flower in a greenhouse, but I’ve cooked bugs before in the past.”

The kid’s voice was still shouting from outside, but.

Even so, it did not have much meaning.

[Assistant Chef]

“Wh, what are these things.”

Cooking griddles, woks, frying pans, and the like were blocking the doorway.

Since that kid was also an awakened, the kid would possess strength incomparable to that of an ordinary human.

But.

'The strength of an Assistant Chef follows the master’s stats.'

Unfortunately.

The power contained in each of those Assistant Chefs was at a level that far surpassed even the arm strength of most awakened.

It was not something that kid could do anything about.

“Senior, I’ve also dissected a zombie before after listening to the radio the Legion sent.”

Like that.

As we began a detailed observation of these insects.

Howard opened his mouth with a strange expression.

“What I saw back then wasn’t shaped like this.”

“Exactly.”

The appearance of the parasites we remembered was that of small, long insects.

They were so small that even stabbing them by luck was difficult.

That was also the reason why the ratio of people who succeeded in awakening by hunting zombies was low.

But what was in front of us now was not like that.

“That rat called king....... There was a reason it had to grow that large.”

The corpses of the insects here were all huge.

Most likely, the true bodies of zombies that had gone through what they called evolution all became like this.

The reason the rat called king had been so large was likely that it needed space inside for the main body to settle.

“Leaving aside the size. These things like tentacles.”

“Judging by the form.......”

A tremendous number of tentacles were protruding strand by strand from the bodies of those huge insects.

“They’re mimicking nerves.”

“Nerves, huh.”

We were basically chefs.

But in this world, there was no such thing as a butcher who would handle slaughtering for us.

So chefs basically also took on the role of butchers, and inevitably came to know a little about the structure of living creatures.

From the true bodies of those zombies, tentacles that mimicked nerves were growing.

They must have replaced the nerves the monster originally possessed.

“Well, first, let’s cut them open.”

These seemed to be corpses given to that little kid to reference while making a recipe.

But maybe because the kid had not been interested from the start, they had been left alone as they were.

Should I say it was fortunate, at least, that the kid had not damaged them?

There must still have been fear toward those zombies.

Slice—

We immediately began dismantling those insects.

Of course, no matter how much we substituted for the role of butchers, we only knew the structure roughly at best.

Neither Howard nor I was a biologist.

Naturally, even if we cut apart those body parts, an ability that could examine them in detail.......

[Ingredient Appraisal (Enhanced)]

[Parasite’s Invasion Maw]

We had one.

“It’s...... shaped like a mouth, but it isn’t used for eating. It’s used for digging in. It seems to be for the initial invasion, or for moving around inside the body of a target it has successfully parasitized.”

“The legs are ordinary. Primitive, but...... they seem usable for cooking too. They feel like crustacean legs.”

Howard and I began a detailed analysis °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° of those insects while using Ingredient Appraisal.

Even as we did so, I looked at Howard with a strange gaze.

'That guy originally couldn’t use his ability against monsters.'

The realization we had exchanged during our last meeting must have had a positive effect after all.

In the end, it seemed he still could not view even humans as ingredients until the very end.

But now, he was treating monsters as ingredients without hesitation and using his ability.

Anyway, like that.

We dismantled various parts, grasped their structure, and thought.

'Their appearances differ a lot from individual to individual. It must be the influence of that evolution.'

According to what that prince said.

These things lived their entire lives with only the nutrients they were given at the beginning.

'But...... a large amount of nutrients must be consumed for this kind of evolution.'

For things whose cause of death was mostly starvation, that alone meant their lifespan would be drastically reduced.

It was likely that worms that had not gone through evolution would actually live longer.

That was why I had a question.

'Why exactly do these things go through this evolution?'

A strong individual appears, creating an environment where the entire species can reproduce more easily.

I could understand that much.

But if the strong individual that appeared like that died before long, would that not be putting the cart before the horse?

That was what I wondered.

“Mm...... Senior?”

But then, in the middle of that.

Howard seemed to have discovered something and spoke with a frown.

“Look at this.”

“Mm?”

What he brought with those words was.

A very small piece of skin.

A small piece full of wrinkles, with tiny holes pierced all through it.

I wondered what this was.

“These things have an absorption organ.”

“What?”

At Howard’s following words.

I could not help being a little surprised.

I looked at that piece with my eyes wide.

[Parasite’s Absorptive Membrane]

[An organ for efficiently absorbing a specific energy source.]

“......It’s real.”

According to what that prince said.

These things did not take in any energy source after they were born.

I had actually seen a zombie that had starved to death like that right in front of my eyes, and I had not felt a lie in those words themselves.

“What is this? These guys can’t eat anything in the first place. Why do they have an absorption organ like this?”

“Well. He said that at first, they receive some kind of calories from somewhere, and pass energy on to their descendants too, didn’t he? Isn’t this the organ used then?”

“Mmm.”

The organ that stored energy itself had already been discovered long ago.

But.

'If there is a being that created these things, it would be enough to inject it directly.'

It was the same in the case of passing energy on to descendants.

If they gave birth to descendants and transferred that energy at the same time, this kind of organ would not be necessary.

The only reason an absorption organ like this would exist was.

'In the case where additional energy is supplied from the outside.'

Only one.

But that prince had stated that they did not receive additional energy supply.

Each and every one of these organs used resources as a living creature.

To put it bluntly, it was clear that the lifespans of those zombies would increase considerably if just this one organ disappeared.

'The reason for evolution, and this organ too.'

Even so.

The creator who designed these things had chosen to leave this organ.

I frowned and thought.

'That guy called prince.'

I had thought it from the first conversation, but.

With this, I was certain.

'He is hiding something.'

What he revealed to me was not everything.

That prince was definitely hiding something more.