Chapter 26 – Apartment Complex (2)

I was barely able to cover up my mistake of speaking Korean.

“You say we can understand each other because of the elf’s magic?”

“Yes.”

I nodded matter-of-factly in response to the middle-aged man’s question.

Fortunately, Zahina and Hofmann were too far away to hear my Korean.

Only the middle-aged man heard what I said, so I could insist that Zahina made everyone able to understand each other after asking her.

The order was wrong and it wasn’t true, but who cares.

“An elf and a knight. Is this a fantasy novel after zombies…”

The man was so stunned by our appearance that he didn’t pay attention to what I said.

“Fantasy novel? Like a fairy tale?”

Hofmann tilted his head at the man’s words.

The elf’s translation ability wasn’t perfect.

It translated non-existent words into similar ones, changing the meaning.

Well, I suppose this translation isn’t bad.

“Surely this isn’t some kind of costume? Those ears are real?”

Perhaps because he was an ordinary middle-aged man.

This man couldn’t easily believe our appearance, like the soldier I saw yesterday.

“Yes. I am Jansen Egger, a free knight from the Kingdom of Sorbia.”

“I’m Soldier Hofmann.”

“I am Zahina, daughter of the sacred tree.”

In the end, we had to introduce ourselves.

“Uh… So. If you’re from a kingdom. From Europe or somewhere… Sigh, that can’t be.”

The man hesitated and eventually sighed.

“Anyway, you saved my life, so I should thank you first.”

He thanked us and introduced himself.

“My name is Lee Joon-ho. I belong to the Pyeongnae base in Namyangju City. I met you all while out on morning patrol.”

Pyeongnae base… As expected, there were enough people left in this city to establish a base.

“Let’s talk in detail when we get back to the base. Everyone will be glad… to see you.”

It seemed he found it difficult to be entirely welcoming of us.

It didn’t matter.

If they weren’t welcoming, we could just live accordingly.

He wiped the steel pipe clean with the zombie’s clothes before guiding us.

Towards the small forest where the other man who fled first had run.

Beyond that forest, an apartment complex was visible.

It wasn’t a large forest, but perhaps because it was an urban forest, zombies could be seen here and there.

Joon-ho tried to guide us on a path avoiding the zombies in the forest, but we just cut straight through.

Of course, the zombies in the forest rushed at us, but ordinary undead attacking in turns were merely cumbersome obstacles.

We exited the forest while dealing with all the zombies that came at us.

Unfortunately, the other man who had fled first didn’t seem to have escaped to the end.

He rushed at us at the edge of the forest, having lost one arm.

Grooooowl!

I swung my sword, giving him peace, and Mr. Lee Joon-ho sighed as he saw his zombified colleague.

“If only he had escaped alone, he might have survived to the end…”

Surprisingly, he didn’t get angry about being abandoned and fled from.

“Well, I’ve abandoned others and fled before too. Who would stay behind to die except for family?”

It seemed the mindset of a ruined world had properly settled in, even though not much time had passed since the undead swept through.

It was unavoidable, but playing separately like this would make it difficult to fight against the Demon King’s army…

I was worried, but as a third party, I couldn’t say anything.

Having exited the forest like that, we headed towards the apartment complex following Joon-ho’s guidance.

They must have been clearing the area, as no zombies were visible around the apartments.

Once it became clear that our destination was the apartment complex, I asked Joon-ho.

“Did you set up a base in the apartment complex?”

“We had no choice. All the survivors were people who had been in this apartment complex.”

It was a strange statement. Surely he didn’t mean everyone else had died?

“People living in commercial buildings or low-rise buildings almost all died that day when the zombie horde came.”

It was hard to believe, but my suspicion was correct.

“Zombies filling the roads broke windows and glass doors to enter buildings and kill people. In fact, it wasn’t just low-rise buildings. They pushed into the apartments too and killed everyone living on the lower floors. Only those living on the middle floors and above of the apartments barely survived.”

It seemed the undead wave led by the Demon King’s army had passed through here.

Well, if you can’t stop the undead wave, not just villages but even cities die.

It was rather amazing that there were any survivors at all.

“Don’t tell me even waves can’t climb that high?”

Hofmann looked up at the high-rise apartment with a surprised face.

Since there were no such tall buildings in our world, we couldn’t know that you could survive a wave by being in a tall building.

In fact, it wasn’t certain if they survived the wave by being in a tall building.

It could be that they were safe because each home was locked, or it might be a combination of multiple reasons.

Anyway, according to what was said now, it meant many survivors might still remain among those who lived in high-rise buildings.

‘If so, there might be surprisingly many living people in the city?’

Those I was close to in my past life might be alive too.

I’d have to go further down to meet them, but I felt good at the thought that I might be able to see their faces even now.

We passed through the main gate of the apartment complex, which had a makeshift barricade of various junk piled up, and headed towards the apartment in the center of the complex.

There were no people in front of the barricade or in the security office. It looked like the ground floor had been completely abandoned.

Before we could ask about it, Joon-ho spoke first.

“The survivors were people who lived on the middle floors and above of the apartments, but that doesn’t mean everyone who lived on the middle floors and above survived.”

“In fact, not many people survived. Many people turned after the first day, many didn’t return home, and many left the apartment complex after that day.”

He pointed to the apartment we were heading to.

“In the end, because there weren’t many people left, we decided to all live together on the upper floors of Building 106 at the entrance of the complex.”

It wasn’t a bad idea.

Being together makes it easier to monitor the surroundings, and having more people makes it good for showing strength to the surroundings.

But to be able to gather people who had already become so individualistic into one apartment so quickly.

The person who formed this group seemed very capable.

The problem was that the place where they were living now was the upper floors of this apartment.

“Don’t tell me we have to walk up this building?”

Even Hofmann looked up at the apartment with a sickened expression.

“We don’t know when another zombie horde might rush in. It’s unavoidable if we want to live.”

It seemed these people were too scared of the wave.

An undead wave isn’t a common occurrence.

But I couldn’t tell them not to worry because it’s not common either.

The Demon King’s army that went south might come back up, or the Demon King in the north might send down undead again.

In the end, we had to walk up Apartment 106.

“It’s a shame. If only we had electricity, it wouldn’t be this hard…”

Joon-ho said with an apologetic face, but I was the only one who understood what he meant.

Moreover, I couldn’t pretend to understand either.

He might as well have been talking to a wall.

More than that, no electricity…

In the apocalypse novels I read in my past life, electricity came on for quite a while.

I guess that only happens in novels.

Then, what happened to the nuclear power plants?

Did people stop them, or did they explode?

Surely the nuclear power plants on China’s east coast didn’t explode too?

I suddenly felt a bit worried at the thought.

Whether mana could block radiation, whether holy water or potions could treat radiation poisoning,

I shook my head to dispel the anxiety.

There was no use in worrying about it.

It wasn’t something I could do anything about, and I couldn’t pretend to know either, so I had to leave it to luck.

As we climbed the emergency stairs instead of the elevator, Joon-ho answered various questions from Hofmann.

He explained the unfamiliar apartment structure and answered follow-up questions.

“With homes packed so tightly like this, what do you do when people need to gather?”

“The floor we’re going to now is used for such times. We use it as headquarters.”

As he said, when we reached the 30th floor, a floor with a different structure appeared.

It was an open floor with thick fire doors.

“It’s a refuge safety zone, a fire evacuation floor. It’s made in the middle of tall buildings in case of fire, but now we’re using it for this.”

A large tent was set up in the center of the open floor with no windows.

Several people were gathered inside the wide-open tent.

“Welcome back, Mr. Joon-ho… Who’s behind you?”

One of the people in the tent waved at Joon-ho who was guiding us, then screamed like they were startled when they saw us.

Surprised people looked at us, and some grabbed weapons they had set down right next to them.

As expected, they were well-prepared for civilians.

Seeing people move, we stopped in our tracks.

The people in the tent rushed out, and their faces became bewildered when they saw us.

They had similar expressions to when Joon-ho first saw us.

No, actually, more people had expressions like they were seeing crazy people.

It was natural.

To the casual observer, it looked like we were cosplaying while the world had ended.

I put away my sword and raised both hands.

I opened my mouth, looking at the man still remaining in the tent.

“Unlike how Mr. Joon-ho was surprised by our appearance, I found it strange that he wasn’t surprised by mana and magic, but now I think I know why.”

Until we came here, I thought he just gave up on understanding, but that wasn’t it.

Along with my words, Joon-ho’s face became surprised as he confirmed the man I was looking at.

“You can tell just by looking?”

He introduced the man I was looking at.

“This is our community leader. He’s the one who created the base and gathered people.”

Looking at the man in the tent, I understood how he gathered the people of this base into one building and united them.

It couldn’t have been easy to get people to change homes according to someone else’s words while the world was ending.

It wasn’t something that could be easily done with just charisma or political skill.

In this kind of world, there was something more necessary than that.

It was strange new powers and abilities.

“Our leader has amazing abilities like you. He’s incredibly strong, and when light shines from his hands, he can take down zombies in one hit.”

The man called the leader was now emitting light from his hands.

Seeing this, Hofmann exclaimed in admiration.

“Oh, a natural awakener. So natural awakeners have appeared here too.”