Chapter 176 – Leaving the Island

Fortunately, the Death Knights who landed on Jeju Island were only those two.

The corpse knights did not roam other beaches but headed straight into the town, so the damage to other areas was minimal.

However, Hamdeok-eup, where the Death Knights and the following undead ran rampant, suffered significant damage.

After dealing with the Death Knights, we immediately entered the town to handle the zombies, but the town was already in ruins in that short time.

It was all because of the Death Knights.

If it had just been zombies, people could have bought time by hiding in their homes, but in front of the Death Knights’ swords, walls and houses were no different from pieces of paper blown away by the wind.

Dozens of houses were destroyed, and even more people lost their lives.

Among the dead were some unexpected individuals.

While dealing with the remaining zombies, we saw the President on the western road of the town.

“Why is the President here, and why is he dead?”

The President was moving around as a corpse next to an overturned military tactical vehicle.

He wasn’t the only corpse around the vehicle.

Several soldiers lay dead on the ground.

Seeing them holding guns and surrounding the vehicle, it seemed the soldiers had died protecting the overturned vehicle.

And there was a living person inside the overturned vehicle.

A fading presence. The person inside was dying.

After putting the moving old man to sleep, I forcibly pried open the door of the overturned vehicle.

Peering inside, I saw a person hanging upside down in the passenger seat.

Thanks to the seatbelt, he had survived the overturned vehicle, though half-crushed.

“A… a person!”

When I showed my face, the man, who was bleeding profusely upside down, urgently reached out to me.

His hand stretched out as if using some ability.

But I felt nothing from that hand.

He looked at me with a hollow expression, his hand still outstretched.

The man dying inside the vehicle was the young man I had seen at the Jeju Provincial Government Office two days ago.

The President’s son, who had tried to brainwash me and had brainwashed his father and the ministers.

He was dying in an unexpected place.

“This doesn’t make sense. Why are you here?”

He looked at me and muttered with a dazed expression.

That was what I wanted to ask.

After examining him hanging upside down, I called Yerim, who had followed me.

Yerim, who had run to the vehicle, frowned upon seeing the man inside.

It wasn’t because she knew who he was.

She frowned because of his injuries.

His waist was half-severed, and one leg was missing—a severe injury.

Even Yerim’s divine power couldn’t bring him back to life.

But I asked Yerim for a favor.

“Heal him.”

“…Okay.”

Though puzzled, Yerim followed my request and healed him.

A faint light enveloped the young man, and he looked at me in surprise.

“Are you planning to save me? Good thinking. You’ve acknowledged that you need my ability. If you return my ability, I’ll use it only for you. Do you have someone in mind? Just say the name.”

His tone changed immediately. As the pain lessened, he looked at me with a happy expression.

He seemed to think that since I had taken his power, I could return it.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible.

Moreover, his body was beyond saving.

I had no intention of indulging his false hope.

I immediately stated what I wanted.

“We’ll talk about that later. First, I’d like to know how this happened.”

Saving him was impossible, and I had no reason to save him.

I only spared him because of the situation; he had attacked me before.

Yerim’s healing was just to buy him time to talk.

“Can you let me down? The blood in my eyes is uncomfortable…”

He asked to be let down, complaining about the blood pouring into his eyes, but I shook my head.

“After the treatment.”

If I released the seatbelt holding him, his barely attached lower body would fall off.

In fact, if he weren’t an Awakener, he would have died from shock by now.

Like the President, who had been thrown out of the window and died, becoming an undead.

“Sigh… here’s what happened…”

At my refusal, he began to explain what had happened.

After we left, the ministers and the Chief of Staff had apparently used the President’s son to threaten the President and strip him of all his authority.

The President’s position and authority. Even his hidden assets.

In a past life, a headline like “President’s son’s illegal activities lead to President’s resignation” would have been fitting.

After that, they tried to send the President’s son to prison.

The President had tried to escape Jeju with his son before that.

So the President and his son, along with some loyal soldiers, had come to Hamdeok-eup.

“There’s a U.S. military base in Japan, so we planned to take a boat from Haedong Port to get there.

But then, not zombies, but these metal scraps attacked us.”

His speech became more informal and stuttered as time passed.

It seemed even the divine power couldn’t sustain him much longer.

“Stupidly, we anchored the boat in the north because it was easier for the soldiers to defend… Huh? Why is there blood…”

While speaking, he wiped his eyes and looked at the blood on his hand in shock.

His hand was covered in thick, clotted blood mixed with flesh and organ fragments.

He seemed to finally realize the state of his body.

“Did you… deceive me?”

“Maybe.”

I just shrugged at his question.

“You… you won’t get away with this…”

He pointed at me with an angry expression, but he couldn’t finish his sentence before his breath stopped.

A complete death, not even turning into an undead.

I didn’t release the seatbelt until the very end.

“Good job.”

I stood up, thanked Yerim, and then met with the party members who had returned after scouting the area.

“There are no more undead in this village.”

As Irene said, no more undead presence was felt.

Many people had died, but quite a few had survived.

However, no one showed their face outside.

We passed through the ruined streets and returned to the van.

“Shall we head back to Unjin Port?”

As we got into the car, the navigator, who had been hiding near the van, got into the driver’s seat and spoke to me with a relieved expression.

But I stopped the car from starting and asked him,

“If undead that even soldiers and artillery can’t stop land on Jeju, what will Representative Yang do?”

“Ah…”

The navigator made a troubled expression at my question.

“He won’t just let us go, right?”

The boat at Unjin Port was also one we had received through Representative Yang.

If he were an ordinary person, he would be busy hiding or fleeing upon hearing the news, but he was now the leader of a faction.

The navigator knew well what he would do.

“He’ll definitely try to stop us.”

He would rush to Unjin Port as soon as he heard the news.

Moreover, the self-proclaimed “Jeju Defense Commander” was also waiting for us at Unjin Port.

I thought he had stayed at the port to avoid the battlefield, but thinking about it, that wasn’t the case.

He, along with Representative Yang, would do everything to stop us from leaving once they heard we had defeated the Death Knights.

Of course, even if Representative Yang and the general tried to stop us, they couldn’t prevent us from leaving.

It would only increase mutual resentment.

But we couldn’t stay on Jeju to protect the people.

We were people who had to leave eventually.

It was best to leave without seeing them.

Fortunately, we had heard about a new boat, so it wouldn’t hurt to check it out.

“Do you know Haedong Port?”

“Yes. I’ve been there before.”

“There’s a boat there. Let’s head there.”

The navigator followed my instructions and drove the car.

The van passed through the ruined town and headed to Haedong Port, located to the east of the town.

A few minutes by car from the town, we arrived at the small port where several boats were docked.

A few old fishing boats and a large, luxurious yacht that didn’t fit the quiet port.

That yacht was undoubtedly the boat the President’s son had mentioned.

The port was quiet.

No one was guarding the port or the boats.

The intact yacht suggested someone had been guarding it, but now there was no one.

Of course, that was expected.

With undead causing chaos in the neighboring town, no one would stay to guard the port and boats.

After parking the van next to the boat, we all boarded.

The yacht prepared by the President looked much better than the one at Unjin Port.

The difference between a high-end yacht and a luxury yacht, I guess.

Anyway, it was a fancy boat like the ones seen in movies.

“Wow… I didn’t know such a boat existed in Korea.”

The navigator’s eyes sparkled as he looked around the boat.

“Can you operate this?”

“Of course. No, you have to.”

He nodded like crazy at my question.

Fortunately, it was a modern boat, so it was easy to operate.

There was no damage, and everything was well-prepared, so setting off wasn’t difficult.

After a few checks, we raised the anchor, and the boat started moving.

Vroooom!

This time, it was a real departure.

The boat left the port and headed out to sea.

Behind us, smoke rose from the town.

Later, I heard that Representative Yang, the general, and many others had gathered at Unjin Port that day, waiting for us.

Someone, I don’t know who, had even shot holes in the boat to stop us from leaving, but they had to return home without seeing us.

We left Jeju behind and continued north.

Our destination was Gunsan Port.

A port on the west coast we had been to before.

As before, heading to Gunsan was the best option.

The land route to Daejeon was the shortest, and since we had been there before, there was less chance of getting lost.

Of course, going up the river in a hovercraft like before would be difficult, but it was still better than heading to the ruined ports of Busan or Jeolla.

The luxurious yacht cut through the water like a speedboat. It didn’t take long for the boat to reach the waters off Gunsan.

There, we could hear news about Daejeon.

Thanks to the U.S. military.

Off the coast of Gunsan, we suddenly saw a submarine surface in front of us.

Kwaaaaaa!

A massive submarine rose with a groaning sound.

The submarine, covered in rough scars, was the U.S. nuclear submarine that had taken us from the container ship to the carrier strike group.