Chapter 107 – New Port (1)

The bombardment didn’t last long.

Though powerful enough to completely tear up the road in front of the bridge, the shelling stopped after moving position once or twice.

Though brief, it was a great help.

The shells scattered the zombies and undead rushing in by filling the road with craters.

The truck and bus quickly passed through the road devastated by shell impacts.

I climbed onto a passing truck and looked back.

Two people stood watching us from the bridge.

The lieutenant and sergeant.

It was amazing enough that artillery and gunners remained in Yeongdo, and impressive that the lieutenant colonel had them support us,

But these soldiers who came all this way and provided artillery support for us were truly remarkable.

Though they had shown lax discipline whenever we saw them, they were far more knightly than the continent’s knights.

Hoffman, who was also looking back with me, spoke:

“What splendid soldiers.”

“Hope they don’t die.”

At my words, Hoffman replied with confidence:

“They’ll survive.”

As if hearing Hoffman’s words, the two watching the departing bus and truck threw away their radios and started running madly toward the island.

Though their current appearance was pitifully different from their impressive showing earlier, it wasn’t funny now.

While I worried if they could safely reach Jodo, now wasn’t the time to worry about them.

“They’re starting to cling on.”

“Well, we should be grateful for this much. The shells just scattered them in all directions.”

Zombies started swarming toward the truck and bus that had slowed due to the ruined road.

Zombies with missing arms and half-torn waists rushed toward the truck and bus while falling into the cratered road.

Fortunately their numbers were fewer than before. Zombies with leg injuries from the bridge had slowed down.

Though fewer in number, the rushing undead horde was still very threatening to the slowly moving bus and truck.

Seeing the truck and bus unable to reach full speed, I leaped onto the following bus’s roof.

*thud*

Landing quietly on the bus roof, I could hear people talking inside.

“Ugh, why is this bus rocking more than a ship?”

“Hey American! Drive better! You best driver! Okay?”

“Captain! Why are you suddenly using broken English?”

“When the drawbridge crashes down, bombs fall on the road, and zombie hordes rush from all sides, English just comes out naturally.”

Surprisingly, the crew members on the bus were relaxed enough to joke.

“This reminds me of hitting a typhoon in the Indian Ocean 3 years ago. Thought I was going to die then too.”

“You say that because you haven’t sailed for 10 years. Compared to the ship that sank 15 years ago, this is nothing. Right, Captain?”

Seems they had underestimated sailors’ composure. These were people who had faced death multiple times.

Then the captain’s voice was heard:

“More importantly, I just heard something on the roof…”

Though I thought I had climbed up carefully, the captain’s hearing was better than expected.

“Could a zombie have gotten on the roof?”

“Captain! Don’t we have any weapons?”

“What use are weapons against things that keep moving when shot?”

“We could at least push them off, right?”

As the crew members chattered, the captain replied calmly:

“Those people will handle it. They escaped from the zombie horde after all.”

“True, they did lower the drawbridge.”

When one sailor agreed with the captain, another muttered quietly:

“That’s what worries me…”

At those words, the car fell silent.

I clicked my tongue softly while standing on the roof.

To be misunderstood like this!

Seemed I needed to clear up this misunderstanding.

Though I wanted to stand on the roof and cut down the undead rushing at the bus by releasing mana from my sword,

Unfortunately I could only use sword energy techniques, releasing mana from the sword, as finishing moves now.

Using it once would drain my mana and make movement difficult.

Count Schönheim used it just fine when fighting the octopus monster.

Perhaps I should visit the count’s family…

Erasing the sudden thought from my mind, I started running across the bus roof.

Zombies had grabbed onto the back of the bus.

“Ah! Zombies are clinging to the back! We need to shake them off! Don’t we have a mop or something?”

“No! Try shaking the car to throw them off! Hey driver! Rough driving! Are you okay?”

“How is that supposed to work? Aah the zombie is trying to break the window… huh?”

I placed my hand on the bus’s side and swung my sword, cutting off the wrists of zombies clinging to the back.

Then cutting their necks too, I moved elsewhere and briefly looked inside through the back window.

The crew members were watching with surprised eyes.

Seeing their wide-eyed expressions made me internally smirk, remembering their brave words from earlier.

I moved around the bus as if running along its sides, dealing with zombies and skeletons clinging to it.

Many undead clung to the slow-moving bus, but most were zombies so they weren’t hard to shake off.

Between cutting zombies’ arms and necks, I also checked on the running truck.

The party members and U.S. soldiers were holding up well in the truck.

The U.S. soldiers were firing single shots at rushing zombies, while their commander stood in the middle of the truck bed shouting loudly:

“Save ammo! Single shots! Just need to knock them down! They can’t follow if they fall!

Daniel! Are you an elf? If legs are hard to hit, aim for the body! Just need to stop them following the car!”

The reason for the commander’s shouting was simple.

The U.S. soldiers were trying to hit zombie legs from the moving truck.

As the commander said, hitting anywhere to stop them was enough, but the soldiers tried to hit zombie legs when possible.

The reason for their reckless behavior was my party members.

Hoffman stood in the truck bed hitting approaching zombies’ legs with arrows.

Though he couldn’t put zombies down permanently without Zahina nearby, it was enough to make them roll on the ground.

While zombies hit by arrows rolled on the ground one after another, flames burst from the truck’s driver’s window with gunshots.

Zahina was shooting while driving one-handed.

Her bullets properly shattered the legs of approaching zombies and skeletons.

Unlike Hoffman, her mana-infused bullets put down undead with shattered legs.

Seeing this made the U.S. soldiers act recklessly.

Fortunately, they came to their senses at their commander’s shouts.

As they focused and put bullets into undead bodies, more undead rolled on the ground.

Though this meant more undead rushed at the bus following the truck, we could handle that much.

After that chaos, we left the ruined road behind.

As the bus and truck gained speed and Ye-rim released holy power, we could repel the pursuing undead.

The accelerating truck and bus cut through Busan which had become a city of death.

The lawless streets we saw hours ago were much more livable compared to what we saw now.

The few moving cars and motorcycles seen earlier were no longer visible.

Those vehicles were now burning wrecks.

Zombies tried crawling out of burning car windows while on fire, and groups of zombies wearing backpacks walked the roads.

They were clearly the people we saw hours ago.

Even as zombies they hadn’t let go of their weapons.

The zombie groups holding pipes, kitchen knives, and handmade spears looked as dangerous as skeletons.

In the distance, down an alley, someone was seen being chased by zombies.

Though we weren’t in a position to help, it was also too far to assist.

*bang*

Just then, a gunshot rang from the truck’s driver’s seat and the zombie chasing the person fell.

Zahina had taken down the zombie.

Seeing this, the U.S. soldiers raised their guns again.

“Damn bastards! Shoot well! If you miss even one shot, you’ll do drills on top of the truck!”

The commander didn’t stop his subordinates, and loud gunfire started from the truck.

For a brief moment, helping hands reached out to people fleeing zombies in the death-filled streets.

Zombies pouncing on women running with children’s hands fell to bullets, zombies grabbing the legs of men hanging from spears dropped when shot.

As the truck and bus cut through Busan, not a few people survived zombies for at least a moment.

Of course, we didn’t know how many would ultimately survive, and knew even one would struggle to live, but neither I nor Hoffman stopped them.

Sometimes such seemingly wasteful comfort was needed during harsh war.

My job was handling undead drawn to the bus and truck by the noise.

Fortunately I only needed to deal with ones clinging on, so it was easy.

While dealing with clinging zombies and skeletons, the crew members’ expressions toward me changed.

Before getting in they had looked at me like a strange person, but now they looked like they were watching a superhero from movies.

Actually, my party members who shot while driving and blocked undead with holy power seemed to do more this time, but the crew seemed to think differently.

All I did was swing a sword a few times while moving on top of the moving bus – did that look so impressive?

‘Wait, was it actually impressive?’

Thinking back to my previous life, it probably was impressive.

The movements I just showed were like something from movies, so people’s surprise made sense.

After passing through the death-filled streets and crossing two short bridges, we saw New Port, Busan New Port.

“What is that? What did they do with the containers?”

“Is that a castle?”

Busan New Port wasn’t what we expected.

Multiple layers of container walls surrounded the port like a castle.

Undead were climbing those walls.

Hundreds of zombies and skeletons were climbing the container walls.

People on top of the container walls pushed back undead with handmade spears.

Right now, a siege battle was happening at Busan New Port.