Chapter 150 – The Tunnel (1)

In front of Sunset Park, a three-story building surrounded by barricades was a hastily established outpost by the U.S. government after the satellite crash. Inside the lobby of the building was the command center for the outpost.

The walls of the lobby were covered with a map of New York City, plastered with sticky notes, and in the center of the lobby, desks and chairs were haphazardly arranged.

In front of those desks, people were shouting into radios.

“Damn it, can’t you hear me? It’s a complete mess! Manhattan is completely out of reach!”

The lobby was filled with shouting, but it seemed like the others couldn’t hear the noise as they ran around the lobby.

Some people were running to the map on the wall with notes in hand, others were taking the wounded upstairs, and some were rushing outside in firefighter gear.

Perhaps because this was America, everyone running around the lobby was armed.

The chaotic lobby fell silent the moment we entered.

The man in firefighter gear stopped in his tracks, and the person shouting into the radio forgot what he was saying.

They all stared at us, particularly at me and Zahina, with shocked expressions.

“Good Lord, look at those ears. She’s an elf.”

“There’s a knight too.”

“Is this a masquerade? Or some kind of cosplay?”

“I get the armor, but who would go through the trouble of making elf ears in times like these?”

“I guess you’re right.”

Some were surprised by me, but most were staring at Zahina with their mouths agape.

“Damn, am I dreaming? Knights and elves? The zombie apocalypse was already unbelievable, but this… is this even real?”

One person even looked at the barrel of his gun as if contemplating suicide before jerking back in shock.

“I explained it to them beforehand, but I guess they didn’t believe it,” Tom, who was guiding us, scratched his head as he looked at the shocked people.

“Well, I wouldn’t have believed it either if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.”

I nodded, having seen this kind of reaction before, and followed him deeper into the cluttered lobby.

Inside, a group of people was gathered around a long table, raising their voices at each other.

“We don’t have enough people. We’re already struggling to rescue survivors, and now you want us to raid the Federal Reserve Bank vault and explore the meteor crater? If we pull people out for that, it’ll be hard to defend this outpost.”

“But we don’t have a choice. We need to gather as many people as we can right now.”

“Damn it, I get the vault, but why do we need to go to the crash site? That place is really dangerous.”

The people who had been arguing passionately stopped talking and stared at us with wide eyes when they saw us.

It was always the same look, and while it didn’t sit well with me, it wasn’t a bad way to grab attention.

Fortunately, the people here had heard about us beforehand, so there was no need for further explanation.

Once all eyes were on us, we exchanged brief greetings and got straight to the point.

A map of New York with a line cutting across it was spread out on the long table, and we gathered around it to continue the meeting.

“The route is as follows.

The task force that came with you from Korea will enter Manhattan Island, and the first destination will be the Federal Reserve Bank’s underground vault.

The vault is located in the southern part of Manhattan Island.”

Tom pointed to Sunset Park in the southern part of New York with his finger and then traced a line northwest.

His finger moved through the tunnel connecting the mainland to Manhattan Island and pointed to the southern part of the island, Wall Street.

“Once we reach the underground vault and confirm that it’s secure, we’ll leave a small team to guard it.

After that, the rest of the team and you will head to the vicinity of the meteor crater in northern Manhattan to investigate the rift.”

Tom’s finger moved upward again, crossing Manhattan Island to point to Upper Manhattan in the northern part of the island.

On the map, it was an area filled with buildings, but now it was a massive crater caused by the meteor.

“After completing your tasks there, we’ll return to the Federal Reserve Bank vault and then come back here.”

Tom’s finger moved back in reverse order to return to Sunset Park.

It wasn’t a complicated route, but it was a bit too straightforward.

Visiting the Federal Reserve Bank vault twice?

This route was clearly designed with the intention of recovering whatever was in the vault in the worst-case scenario.

If our only goal had been the rift, I would’ve flipped the table over this plan, but I actually liked the route the Americans had proposed.

I added one more thing to Tom’s explanation.

“Zahina and I plan to cross through the rift into the Land of the Sacred Tree once we confirm that it’s stable and then return. I’d like you to guard the rift on this side with the rest of the party until we come back.”

It wasn’t a gate, but since the rift remained, there was no need for the mages to wait in the Land of the Sacred Tree until a new gate was created, as before.

If the rift was connected to the Land of the Sacred Tree as expected, we could travel back and forth even before the gate was established.

Of course, unlike a stabilized gate, a naturally formed rift could do anything. It could disappear at any moment or connect to an unexpected location.

Traveling through the rift without a proper mage was extremely dangerous.

That’s why we had brought along a mage who was an expert on rifts and could also create gates.

Yelena.

She was a spatial mage who had come with us due to her expertise in dimensional magic.

She was a mage who specialized not only in dimensional spaces but also in rifts and gates.

With Yelena, who could create a gate on the spot, there was no need for us to keep traveling back and forth through the rift.

We just needed to stay on the other side of the gate while Yelena turned the rift into a gate.

“How much time will you need?” Tom asked.

I looked at Yelena, and she answered immediately.

“If there are no issues, it should take about four hours in this world’s time to turn the rift into a gate.”

After the Demon King’s gate disappeared, it had taken over a month to create a gate connecting to this world, but now it would only take four hours.

Even though the rift was a ready-made material, the difference was staggering enough to make me sigh.

Hoffman also grumbled, looking up, but it was good news if it could be done quickly.

“Four hours, got it. We’ll guard the rift during that time.”

“Yes. Please protect the rift, our party members, and our mage.”

Once we reached the rift, only Zahina and I planned to go to the Land of the Sacred Tree.

Since it would only take four hours to create the gate, there was no need for the entire party to cross over.

So, we decided to split the party into two.

One group would cross the rift to serve as the magical anchor, and the other would stay in New York to protect the Americans and Yelena, the mage who would create the gate.

The party members staying in New York were Yerim, Hoffman, and Yelena.

Since they would be staying with the Americans, we needed a priest to heal people and someone to protect the priest.

Of course, Yelena also had to stay in New York to recreate the gate.

The Americans would also have to protect the remaining party members rather than guarding the rift.

After all, that was how they’d survive.

They’d see for themselves on the way, so there was no need to explain further.

After the strategy meeting, the people who had been listening looked at us with curious expressions.

“You speak English very well. I heard you came from another world…” Tom said, and I realized why they were staring at us like that.

Well, it was understandable that they’d be surprised to see us, who supposedly came from another world, conversing so fluently with them.

Except for Yerim, of course.

But we weren’t speaking English.

“Listen carefully. It’s not English.”

They stared at my mouth with wide eyes.

“Ah… You’re right. The lip movements don’t match what I’m hearing. Good Lord, how does it sound like English when it’s not?”

As always, it was Zahina’s ability.

“First zombies, then skeletons, and now even psychics have shown up, and now this kind of magic is possible too?”

But the Americans were looking at Yelena with astonishment.

They seemed to think the magical translation was done by the mage.

Yelena, feeling awkward, quickly clarified that it was Zahina’s doing, and the people’s eyes sparkled even more as they looked at Zahina.

“As expected, an elf. She must be an incredible mage.”

“She’s a real elf. Maybe I should get her autograph later.”

A few people were exchanging absurd comments while looking at Zahina, but most refocused on the plan.

“There are no objections to the route, so we’ll proceed as planned. The problem is that there are a few dangerous areas along the way. The first is here, the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel, which connects to Manhattan Island.”

Tom’s finger pointed to a spot on the map spread out on the table.

It was the tunnel that connected the mainland to Manhattan Island, running under the sea.

Above the underwater tunnel, Tom pointed to a small island in the sea.

“The Carey Tunnel is an underwater tunnel, so as long as the inside is cleared, it’s safe from external attacks. However, Governors Island, which is connected to the middle of the tunnel, is currently occupied by survivors—no, looters. To safely enter Manhattan Island, we’ll need to deal with the looters on this island.”

Governors Island.

An island that had long served as a military base protecting New York but had been turned into a tourist attraction decades ago.

Now, instead of tourists, the island was occupied by survivors who had lived through the zombie apocalypse—or rather, looters who attacked other survivor groups.

“They’ve set up camp on the island and are looting the mainland and Manhattan Island through the tunnel. To understand the situation inside Manhattan, we’ll need to make contact with them.”

Tom and the Americans who heard his words clenched their guns with grim expressions.

It seemed the people here had suffered a lot at the hands of that looter group.

Judging by their expressions, it was clear that this “contact” would involve bullets and bloodshed.

Unfortunately, there was no way to reach Manhattan Island without going through the tunnel or a bridge.

Most of New York’s population had turned into zombies and undead, and if we tried to approach Manhattan by boat, the hordes of zombies would pour out onto the shore.

So, we set off toward the tunnel as planned.

The group that set out with us consisted of five party members and ten agents wearing orange smartwatches.

Flap. Flap.

At that moment, above us as we walked toward the tunnel, a swarm of bats was flying north, high in the sky, but we didn’t notice because they were flying too high.