Chapter 724: Mutual Slaughter (1)

Outside the empty city.

A massive black wave surged toward the city.

And that wave......

The horde of corpses rotted black looked toward that city.

'City.'

It was desolate, with nothing left.

Even in its prime, it must have been far removed from the word prosperity.

But even so.

That city was a city designed for humans to live in.

That was why those corpses......

The worms inside them thought.

'Foolish.'

A city designed for life.

A city like that did not suit them.

The place where they belonged was somewhere with more hosts.

It should have been another country that had not yet perished, or somewhere a small number of survivors were hiding.

Originally, that would have been the case.

But now, they had been forced to swarm into this city where {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} there were not even any suitable hosts.

Anger rose in their minds.

'Extremely foolish.'

There were those who had decided to settle in this city.

Those who had once been their kin, and the most outstanding among them, had made such a foolish choice.

How much had they lost because of that?

Their bloodline, which should originally have already spread across the entire world, was trapped in this small, already-desolate land!

Their anger turned toward that city.

Toward the kin who had made that foolish choice.

To make them pay the price for that choice.

***

“......What the hell.”

Corpses with the lowest freshness.

The monsters those parasites had taken as hosts.

The enemy that had invaded to fight such monsters was.

None other than the same thing—corpses with the lowest freshness.

When the invasion first began.

Naturally, I had thought some other monster hostile to those zombies had invaded.

The zombies’ numbers and strength were certainly powerful.

But I thought there must still be some mighty beings left who could survive and resist against that tremendous number of zombies......

Like some of the enemies I had met before.

When that prince roamed outside the city, I had thought that must have been part of hunting down enemies like that.

'That wasn’t it.'

The reason the conquest of this North Korean land had not reached 100%.

It was not because the zombies were fighting other living creatures.

It was the exact opposite.

These bastards had not been fighting an external enemy.

'They were fighting a civil war......!'

The opponent they were competing against was their own kin.

The conquest war in North Korea was being carried out as a battle between zombies and zombies.

'Why......?'

That prince had asked us to develop a “recipe.”

Even though I had offered to feed the prince and the small number of zombies that followed it, it had stubbornly demanded a recipe.

That meant it wanted a way for not only itself and a small number of kin, but all zombies to survive.

And yet.

That very bastard was fighting and competing against its own kin.

I could not understand it.

'Did they have some kind of difference of opinion with the other zombies?'

Those bastards were fundamentally worms.

Among them, individuals that had undergone evolution and gained reason would likely be extremely rare.

If I took into account that their lifespan was about two years.

The time after undergoing such advanced evolution and gaining reason......

In other words, the time since they had gained proper thinking ability would be, at most, a little over one year.

'Bastards barely around one year old, playing at civil war instead of playing house.'

What on earth had happened within that one year?

For them to experience a clash of opinions and fight a civil war among their own kin?

It was questionable.

But.

The thing I had to do was already decided.

'......There!'

Separate from the questions that had surfaced in my mind.

That tremendous number of invaders had already entered the city.

There was no way those bastards would distinguish civilians before attacking.

SPOT!

I leaped into that building.

“......!”

“W-Who are you!”

Just as Corporal Seo Suhyeok had identified.

There were humans inside, taken hostage.

Perhaps they could also hear the noise coming from the city right now, because they looked panicked as they drew up their mana.

But their resistance, without even holding weapons, did not seem likely to mean much against those zombies.

“Calm down......”

“U-Uh...... Uwaaaah!!!”

FWOOOSH!

A hot wave of heat bloomed in front of me.

“Y-You’ve finally come to eat us.”

“.......”

“Damn it. If you were going to kill us, you should’ve killed us from the start. Trying to raise us like livestock like this...... You think we’ll just die the way you want?”

At that attitude.

I frowned and thought.

'Last time too....... Do I look like a zombie?'

They seemed to think I was one of those zombies’ allies.

Fortunately, this was not the first time I had been treated this way, so I more or less understood the situation.

If there was a problem.

'Last time, it took quite a while to persuade them that I was human.'

If it had been the hostages I had met before, this conversation would have been easy.

But these people had never seen me, let alone the unit members.

In an already urgent situation, there was no time to persuade them.

In the end.

“......I really don’t like using this on people unless I have to.”

“Uwaaaah......!”

The attacks of those panicked people surged toward me.

I watched them with a frown and swung my hand.

And in that hand of mine was.

[Combat Ration of Loyalty Infused with the War Chef’s Care]

A piece of jerky.

[Elemental Cooking - Water]

It liquefied.

And surged toward them.

FWAAAAASH!

“......!!!”

A massive flame and crystals of mana had been flying toward me.

Those crystals were instantly erased by the liquid stretching out from my hand.

Even if it was cooking, what was mixed into it was my mana.

No matter how powerful their offensive magic was, it simply collapsed in vain before the mana contained in my cooking.

[Force-Feeding]

And.

Those droplets covered the bodies of the hostages inside the building.

“......Your order.”

“Follow this kitchen knife. When you arrive there, there will be soldiers wearing South Korean military uniforms. Follow their guidance.”

“Yes......”

I was only restricting myself from using it on humans.

The gap between me and ordinary awakened had already widened to a serious level.

They could not resist the power of my cooking in the slightest, and they pledged loyalty as they obeyed my order.

Srrrk.......

“F-Follow the kitchen knife.”

They began moving after my [Assistant Chef].

Even the power contained in the Assistant Chef alone would be enough to deal with ordinary monsters.

That Assistant Chef would protect the hostages and quickly guide them to the location where the unit members were waiting.

'That takes care of them for now.'

The zombies in this city had apparently taken a large number of hostages for whatever reason.

There were still more than one or two nearby locations I had to handle.

I was about to run toward one of those places when......

[Assistant Chef]

SPOT!

I placed my foot on top of the kitchen knife that popped out of my shadow.

In the past, maintaining this would have been difficult because it used too much mana.

But now, lifting one human body and flying through the sky barely affected my mana at all.

I used the kitchen knife attached to my foot like part of my own body and soared into the air.

The Assistant Chef’s stats were identical to its master’s.

Thanks to that, there was not much difference in speed whether I flew through the sky using the Assistant Chef or ran across the ground myself.

Even so, the reason I rose into the sky was simple.

'How is the battle going?'

To properly check the situation of the battle.

I flew toward a nearby building where hostages were being held while looking around the area.

Then I frowned and thought.

'That’s an incredible number.'

I recalled the presences of the zombies inside the city.

From each of those presences, I could tell that they were considerably strong.

But there were not that many of them.

Enough that I had thought I could feed them using my [Force-Feeding], or that of the Bimanars that copied me.

But...... those were different.

-Groooooooooooooooar!!!

The invaders trying to enter the city.

Their numbers were clearly greater than the defenders trying to protect the city.

The only reason balance was barely being maintained was because the zombies on the defensive side were more powerful.

Each of them was fighting against countless enemies alone.

But.

'Those movements......'

A small number being able to fight many was only when the many chose to clash with them head-on.

While the defending zombies used their powerful combat strength to deal with the enemies in front.

I saw some zombies circling around the buildings and heading toward their rear.

My eyes widened as I realized it.

'They have reason!'

I felt goosebumps rise all over my body.

Most of the zombies near that barrier could imitate the combat techniques of their hosts, but.

In the end, they had no reason, so they had only charged blindly toward the enemies visible in front of them.

That had been a large reason we were able to stop the wave of zombies once.

But those bastards were different.

They were trying to take the rear of the city’s zombies in order to deal with enemies stronger than themselves.

An intellect that used strategy to fight enemies stronger than themselves.

'Evolved forms.'

That enormous wave attacking this city.

It meant most of them had gone through enough evolution to gain reason.

***

'There were...... that many evolved forms?'

Since most of the countless zombies near the barrier had no reason.

I had thought individuals that had evolved enough to possess reason must be extremely few.

I had considered it highly likely that the bastards staying in this city were all of them.

It was a ridiculous mistake.

The ones staying in this city were, in fact, the minority.

There were evolved forms numbering hundreds, thousands of times more than them......

'I simply hadn’t known because they were hostile to the zombies in this city.'

Chills ran down my spine at that fact.

Even as I headed to the next building, I looked elsewhere.

I had been studying the corpses of those zombies when I briefly left my place to talk with the unit members.

After that, while I was returning there, this battle had begun.

In other words.

'Howard and that kid?'

The two chefs who should still be inside the building where I had been.

Their safety worried me.

The prince had said they would take responsibility for the chefs’ safety.

I, too, had accepted that and prioritized rescuing the hostages, but......

'There are that many enemies.'

When they were busy defending themselves, I could not be certain they would truly be able to keep that promise.

And.

The moment I looked toward the building where I had been, I could not help but be shocked.

'Already......!?'

Enemies were surging in from every direction.

The zombies that had already invaded had reached the building where I had been conducting my research.

Seeing that entire area dyed black, I felt a chill.

'Was trusting their assurance a misjudgment......!'

They had not yet entered the building.

I hurriedly tried to launch myself toward it......

At that very moment.

FWAAAAASH!!!

“......!?”

From inside that building.

A massive red light burst out.

***

A trail of red light swept once around the building in the shape of a sharp semicircle.

When that gigantic blade of bloodlight was swung briefly.

THUD......

That alone was enough.

The hundreds of zombies swarming around it.

Those corpses, each of which had undergone enough evolution to possess reason.

'......Annihilated.'

They collapsed to the ground from a single strike.

Seeing that, I let out a hollow laugh and thought.

'Zombies don’t die just because their bodies are cut.'

They were beings parasitizing corpses to begin with.

Since the parasite was what moved those corpses, they could not be subdued just because part of the body was cut off.

For those beings to collapse all at once meant.

'The parasites inside...... the main bodies were cut precisely.'

With a single swing.

The different vital points of hundreds of enemies had all been severed.

And.

I looked at the countless corpses that had fallen like that.

At the one corpse standing alone among them.

[Ingredient Appraisal (Enhanced)]

[Corpse of a Lower-Rank Warrior of the Green Swamp Goblin Tribe]

[Freshness: Lowest]

A shabby face and a small body.

An existence that must have looked ugly to begin with, now rotting and even more pitiful in appearance.

'......They called it the chancellor, right.'

The small goblin corpse, which I had thought was merely a guide.

Was tucking back into its chest a stone knife that looked like it would have trouble cutting even tofu.