Chapter 734: It’s Your Responsibility

{I do not want to see things go according to that will.}

I opened my mouth, dumbfounded.

It wanted a recipe to save not only itself and those who followed it, but all zombies.

I had wondered why it had such an altruistic goal.

{If we survive through your cooking, then a small number will certainly be able to live. But what about the rest of my kin?}

“.......”

{In the end, they will live the lives intended by the being that created us.}

But my thoughts had been wrong.

{Since the wall that blocked movement between worlds has vanished, my kin must now be spreading in every direction. They will spread to a degree incomparable to before, soon cover this entire land...... and then vanish.}

“.......”

{Yes. Exactly as our creator wants.}

Its goal was not some altruistic purpose like wanting to save someone.

{I will ruin that.}

It was something of a different nature...... ruining someone’s plan.

{I do not want my kin to cover this world. I do not want my kin to harm the lives of this land. I do not want my kin to finally fulfill that purpose and then vanish emptily. Because that is what my creator desires.}

But.

As things in the world often go.

Good intentions do not always lead to good results.

And malice does not always lead to evil results.

{I will survive on this land together with my kin.}

Rather, at times.

Actions carried out with negative intent can produce altruistic results.

{Because that is what our creator did not want.}

Absurd as it was.

That thing was exactly such a case.

***

The thing spoke firmly.

Only after hearing those words.

I could understand why it had insisted so stubbornly on demanding a recipe.

But that alone was not enough for me to accept it so easily.

“You’re saying you won’t harm us? After taking people hostage and threatening to kill them if we didn’t obey?”

That thing had threatened us with people as hostages.

But when I thought about it.

{So did they die?}

No one had actually died.

No, if anything.

Most of the hostages had been left free by those things.

{My kin sought to make every lifeform on this land into hosts.}

“.......”

{The lives that invaded this land are invaders like us. But those who were invaded are different. They are the ones who suffered this invasion because of us.}

I had felt it before, but this was less like taking hostages and more like.......

{We merely claimed them first, before they could be turned into hosts by my kin.}

“.......”

Only then.

I realized why that thing had been moving around outside the city.

'It was searching for survivors.'

Come to think of it.

It had been a little strange that Corporal Seo Suhyeok’s senses had missed the survivors in this city.

His senses surpassed even mine, despite my level being far higher than his.

At the final moment of that battle.

When I learned there were hostages Corporal Seo Suhyeok had not detected, I thought even he could make mistakes and let it pass.

But that was not it.

'There were hostages they brought in after we came to this city.'

Areas Corporal Seo Suhyeok had already checked.

If additional hostages had been added there after that check was finished.

Then it made sense that there had been hostages he did not know about.

I stuck my tongue out slightly.

I tasted the emotion I could feel from the thing’s words in detail.

And the flavor I felt was.

'It’s sincere.'

Clear sincerity.

I could not believe it completely.

But the taste on my tongue said that thing was telling the truth.

At the same time, however.

'A truth...... hiding something.'

Hidden within it.

There was also a secretive flavor, so faint it was hard to find.

“The hostages said you started dragging them here about a month ago. That’s far too recent for you to have been thinking like this. Why?”

I could tell that thing had that kind of intent.

But for that to be the case, the point when it began bringing hostages was too recent.

And the timing was also strangely coincidental.

“And that’s not all. You said all lifeforms would simply starve to death...... but judging by the battle just now, it’s not as if there’s nothing you can eat.”

{.......}

“Why did you hide that cannibalizing your own kin was possible?”

Those things could devour their own kin.

But the thing had hidden that fact.

It was an extremely important factor in calculating their combat strength.

There was no telling what kind of reason it might be concealing behind hiding that.

“If what you’re saying is really sincere, then I’m willing to help you. Creating a recipe? It won’t be easy, but it’s worth trying.”

{.......}

“But that’s only if I can truly trust you. As you are now...... you’re still hiding far too much.”

At those words of mine.

The gazes of the two zombies turned toward me.

There was a hesitant air, as if they were considering something.

But soon.

{......The reason I began acting a month ago.}

As if it had made some kind of decision.

The thing began answering my question.

“Prince......!”

{It is all right. Since we have already come this far...... there is no meaning in watching for the right moment any longer.}

The minister sounded flustered.

And despite the minister’s attempt to stop it, the thing continued speaking.

{The reason I began acting a month ago is because that was when my resolve hardened.}

“......?”

{I had those thoughts themselves before...... but I lacked the courage to put them into action.}

“It just happened to be exactly one month ago?”

{That is so.}

The time that barrier opened.

I did not know why its resolve had coincidentally hardened at that very time.

But perhaps the two moments had simply overlapped by chance.

So I waited with a frown for the thing to continue.

{The reason I hid the cannibalism of our kin...... was because I wanted to hide that we are ugly beings designed to devour our own kin.}

“......?”

{After we descended on this land, it did not take long for us to begin evolving. Countless kin plant their roots in the bodies of this land’s hosts, gather information about this land through those bodies, and undergo many kinds of evolution suited for moving within this environment. And...... when the necessary time eventually comes.}

Its gaze turned toward those corpses.

The five zombies that had grown stronger by devouring their kin.

{They devour their kin, centered on the individuals that achieved the most outstanding evolutions, and collect their evolutionary information.}

“Collect?”

{The evolutionary methods countless kin chose because they deemed them suitable for survival on this land. They absorb all those infinitely varied branches of evolution.}

At those words.

I stared blankly with my mouth open and thought.

'They weren’t just absorbing that energy?'

No wonder.

I had thought those five had become strangely powerful.

They were not simply growing stronger by gathering more of that energy.

Other individuals that had achieved evolution.

They collected the evolutionary information engraved in those individuals’ genes and applied it to themselves.

By doing that.

They became existences even more optimized for this world.

Devouring that energy was closer to an additional benefit.

Originally, those things would have difficulty living even two years at most.

Among them, the stronger individuals absorbed other beings, became stronger, and increased their lifespan as well.

Those five zombies had been reluctant as they devoured their own kin.

Now I felt like I understood why.

'The greater their numbers, the greater the possibilities for evolution.'

The necessary time that prince mentioned had probably been scheduled for much later by the zombies’ standards.

When the greatest possible variety of kin had achieved the greatest possible variety of evolutions.

The individuals who achieved outstanding evolutions would collect information from their other kin.

The individuals strengthened that way through devouring would undergo evolution for as long as their lifespans allowed.

And when even that lifespan came to an end, they would be absorbed by stronger individuals.

That process would repeat.

'Until only one remained.'

Countless zombies that had absorbed all other life in this world and evolved based on that life.

Until the essence of all of them merged into one......

Until it was reborn as the ultimate lifeform.

{I hid it because I feared this would be considered ugly.}

“What part of that were you worried about?”

{To go against my creator’s will, I chose not to devour the lives of this land. But that is only my position. It is not the position of the lives of this land.}

Just because they did not want to fight us.

There was no guarantee that we would feel the same.

To begin with, zombies were a race strongly recognized as enemies by us.

Even if they had no intention of fighting us, there was a high chance that humans who considered them dangerous would try to subjugate them first.

{We understand the sensibilities of the lives of this land, however slightly. A species that does not hesitate to devour even its own kin. I thought there was no way such a species could be trusted.}

Even if they tried to communicate.

Kin, in human terms, meant those things were people who thought nothing of cannibalism.

If that negative perception grew stronger, any attempt at dialogue itself could ultimately fail.

That was why it had hidden that fact.

{Was that a sufficient explanation?}

“......Hmm. Well, for now.”

Yeah, well.

I could not accept it, but it was a reason I could more or less understand.

{Then can we continue the trade?}

But.

At those words from the thing, I frowned and said.

“No.”

{Why?}

“You said you researched human sensibilities to some extent, right? I said this last time too.”

It was good that it had answered my two questions.

Unfortunately.

It was still a little difficult to completely trust that thing.

Because.

“It’s also quite rude not to even show yourself to the person you’re trading with.”

{.......}

Unlike the other zombies.

The thing had gritted its teeth and hidden its form.

'Even now.'

Even now, after I had mentioned my trust in it.

The thing was hiding its form.

Whatever existed beyond that, the fact that it was hiding something.

That itself was a factor that made it difficult to trust it so [N O V E L I G H T] easily.

“How can I easily accept a trade when the thing I’m trading with is hiding its own appearance?”

{As I said, if it is a trade, I can present additional conditions. There are several more conditions you living ones might be interested in.......}

“I don’t need that.”

In the current situation, there was no meaning in weighing profit and loss.

Even if that thing offered some kind of benefit, a mediocre benefit would not move me.

Yes, what I needed was.

“Trust.”

{.......}

“Proof that I can trust you. Tell me the reason I should help you.”

There was no point in offering other minor explanations or reasons.

What I needed was grounds that I could trust the thing.

And the decisive reason I should help it.

If there was no such thing.

It would be difficult to keep continuing this trade.

Rather than cooperate with such a powerful existence while leaving an unstable factor behind, eliminating it here would be a far greater benefit for our side.

{......The reason you should help me.}

At those words of mine.

The thing thought for a moment, then soon.

{If it is that...... there is one.}

“......Hm?”

As if it had made up its mind.

It said that.

“There’s a reason I should help you?”

And along with that.

SHHHHH......

The gray energy wrapped around the thing’s body began to grow faint.

Finally.

As I watched, thinking it was at last revealing the form it had kept so tightly hidden.......

{Strictly speaking, it is all your responsibility.}

“......Hm?”

The thing.

Began saying something I could not quite understand.

{I certainly had thoughts...... but I lacked the courage to act on them.}

“......?”

{I had always thought that simply walking the same path as my other kin might be proper. But.......}

Inside the energy that vanished with a soft hiss.

The thing’s eyes were revealed.

Eyes glaring at me.

{Were you not the one who guided me onto this path?}

“What does that—”

{The path of being called a traitor by my kin, of joining hands with those who see us as enemies that must be exterminated. The path of going against the creator’s will without knowing what dangers might await.......}

When I first heard that.

I had no choice but to be confused.

{You dragged me onto it.}

Not “you people.”

But “you.”

Words whose meaning I could not understand at all.

As I stared at the thing with that question in mind.

“......Huh?”

Soon.

I had no choice but to let out those words with my mouth hanging open.

Because.

The form of the thing revealed from within the dark-gray energy that had vanished.

It was.

'A human.'

A living human who looked perfectly normal.

A young boy who looked to be in his mid-to-late teens at most.

“......You.”

When I saw that form.

I could not help but be shocked, yet at the same time, I had no choice but to understand its words.

Not because its form was human.

That part was not enough reason to surprise me.

I had already seen countless humans who had become zombies.

There was nothing surprising now about a zombie that had taken a human as its host.

Even so, the reason I had no choice but to be shocked was.

{When I was unable to make that decision...... you clearly promised.}

“......!”

{With those who wish to live together on this land. All of them.}

Its chest opened with a soft slide.

The appearance of the insect parasitizing that body.

[A Trait is activating.]

[Ingredient Appraisal (Enhanced)]

The energy I felt from that insect.

Was one that was far too familiar to me.......

[Race: Parasite]

No, to be precise.

One I had come to feel far too familiar with over the past month.

[Awakened: Parasite B-36S Aberrant Mutant Individual (Fifth Evolutionary Form)]

[Lv.69]

[Class: Prince of Death]

{That you would stand together with them!}

Because it was the energy of the [System].