Chapter 30 – Shopping District (1)

After learning that the dimension I crossed over to, following the Demon King, was my previous life’s Earth, I felt both immensely joyful and regretful.

I was happy to see the Earth from my previous life again, which I thought I would never see, and I was very sorry that the Demon King had crossed over to that world.

I knew that in my previous life’s Earth, there were no priests, holy water, or mana that could stop the Demon King.

Of course, it seemed like mana was slowly appearing, but as expected, the religions on Earth could not create holy water.

In the end, the land of my previous life was being destroyed by the Demon King’s deception.

Although the world was being ruined because the Demon King had crossed over, the joy had not completely disappeared.

It was also because of the hope that I might be able to see the people I was close to in my previous life.

In fact, this joy was very materialistic, unlike such hope.

Although this land was being destroyed, the fact that I was here meant that I was very close to my life’s goal.

The extremely shallow goal of saving money, buying an estate, filling it with artifacts, and living comfortably in my later years.

If this land were intact, I would have agonized between staying here, even if I had to desert, and creating an estate, but since this world was also ruined, there was nothing to worry about.

This world and the world beyond the gate had different lifestyles, cultures, and currencies, but there were also similarities.

It was the value of precious metals.

Precious metals such as gold, silver, and jewels were highly valued on both Earth and Aea.

No, in Aea, precious metals were valued even more than on Earth.

On Earth, while gold and silver were actually used usefully, jewels were only used as luxury items, but in Aea, even such jewels were being used practically.

Wizard’s staff, noble’s accessories, knight’s sword and shield, even armor,

Jewels were being used as mana batteries for artifacts and magical items.

Moreover, the technology to extract minerals was lacking compared to this world, so the price of precious metals had to be higher.

So, today I was thinking of robbing a gold and silver store.

“The bag has enough space, the sword is well-oiled, and my body condition is good after resting well.”

As I muttered while going down the apartment, Hoffman asked.

“You seem to be in a good mood today.”

I nodded at his words.

“Indeed, my body feels light after resting well.”

Unlike Hoffman’s words, the reason I was in a good mood was because of the gold and silver store rather than my physical condition, but I just agreed with Hoffman’s words.

Today, a total of 10 people, including us, were going to the shopping district.

The chief and his two cronies, who seemed to be setting an example, Mr. Lee Jun-ho, whom we saved yesterday, five apartment residents, and lastly, me.

It wasn’t a large number, but considering the total number of people, it must have been the maximum number that could come out.

The reason so many people came out was probably because I was going with them.

They must have thought to gather as many supplies as possible while we were here, since they didn’t know how long we would stay.

The chief and his gang, who were full of other thoughts, wouldn’t be any different in that regard.

Of course, I was the only one who stepped forward, but since I was the only one who had seen their skills, it would have made no difference even if all the party members had come out.

There were several reasons why I left my party members behind and went out alone.

Hoffman was tired from climbing the apartment wall to the top floor last night to scout, and he also had things to do at the apartment today.

It was difficult to take Zahina to a place that might be a trap.

It hadn’t been long since we met, and the prejudice I had against elves was also a problem.

I didn’t have enough trust in her to believe her and walk around a place that might be a trap.

Moreover, Zahina was too pretty to go around with men like the chief.

After letting her rest well and cleaning her up, all the men’s eyes were rolling.

I could well predict what would happen if I moved together with Zahina.

No, to be honest, those were all excuses.

The reason I left my party members at the apartment was that I had to move without the two of them knowing.

If I didn’t have a space-expanding bag, I might have gone together. However, there was no reason to go together when there was enough room in the bag.

“Having to go up here again is really terrible.”

After coming down to the first floor through the stairs, people looked up at the apartment with a disgusted face.

I felt it yesterday too, but walking up to a height of over 30 floors was not an easy task.

We, who had mana, were fine, but Lee Jun-ho, who guided us, was panting when he reached the 30th floor.

Moreover, today we had to go up carrying luggage.

Of course, that would only happen if we succeeded in raiding the shopping district, but if we thought about failing, there was no need to come down either.

Perhaps because of that, everyone except the chief and I had large backpacks on their backs.

‘At a glance, the other people are just porters.’

Everyone was holding iron pipes or modified knives as spears, but the ones who properly fought the undead were the chief and I.

In fact, I had the most luggage, but I had no intention of letting them know about the space-expanding bag.

The shopping district raid team, temporarily formed like that, left the apartment complex and headed to the shopping district two blocks west of the complex.

As befitting a new city built according to the city plan, the streets stretched out straight.

Wide roads, spacious bicycle paths and sidewalks, beautifully planted street trees.

It must have been a nice new city before, but now it looked even more desolate.

Cars abandoned here and there on the road, bloodstains spilled on the sidewalks and roads. Even the items people dropped while running away.

With the corpses wandering around them, it really looked like a scene from a zombie movie I saw in my previous life.

We crossed the middle of that zombie movie.

“Shield! Block!”

“Step back!”

“Stab!”

I didn’t swing my sword until I reached the shopping district. No, I didn’t need to swing my sword.

There weren’t many undead attacking, but the shopping district raid team that moved with me dealt with the undead better than I expected.

The chief’s younger brothers, holding shields, blocked the rushing zombies, and the others, holding spears and iron pipes, stabbed the blocked zombies’ arms, legs, and necks to immobilize them.

And then, the chief’s finishing blow.

He swung an iron pipe close to a club and finished off the struggling zombies.

A typical method of hunting undead with a combination of people who can use mana and ordinary people.

It was a common and ordinary hunting method in our world, but in this world where the undead had appeared not long ago, it was a new and good tactic worthy of applause.

Moreover, seeing him swinging a shining iron pipe and knocking down zombies, I could understand why he easily took over the apartment.

In the middle of the fight, the chief and the others glanced at me following behind, but I just moved my steps with an expressionless face.

After walking for about 30 minutes like that. We saw cars blocking the side street of the main road.

Next to the main road, cars were densely blocking the two-lane road that ran between the mixed-use buildings.

Unlike the abandoned cars we had seen so far, buses and trucks were blocking the road properly to create a wall.

They were all tall vehicles.

The cars weren’t stacked in layers, but it was a car wall that blocked the way to the extent that ordinary people would have difficulty crossing over.

Grrr! Kaaak!

The groans of zombies could be heard from behind the car wall.

“Behind this car wall, it’s all a shopping street.”

As I blankly stared at the car wall, the chief spoke to me.

It seemed like it would be, but the car wall blocking the way was unexpected.

“Did they lock up the zombies by any chance?”

At my question, people smiled bitterly.

“No. This car wall is a trace of people trying to make this shopping district a safe zone.”

The chief kindly explained how it happened.

On the day when many people turned into zombies.

Some of the people in the shopping district tried to make the shopping district, including the shopping center, a safe zone instead of going home.

It was probably because of zombie movies or novels where the shopping center was used as a base.

Originally, people intended to make only the shopping center a safe zone, like in the movies.

However, there were too many people left here, and the other stores on the street also looked very useful, so people joined forces to make the entire street a safe zone.

“In fact, their plan seemed to have succeeded. The inside of the car wall looked safe until the horde of zombies came from the north.”

At Lee Jun-ho’s words, the apartment people nodded their heads.

“How envious we were watching from home.”

“If there were only zombies on the street, our family would have gone there.”

However, the envy of the apartment people soon ended.

The car wall could block ordinary zombies, but it couldn’t stop the horde of zombies and skeletons brought by the Demon King’s army.

The horde of zombies climbed over the car wall and infected the entire shopping district.

“The horde of zombies swept the street as if they came from the north and disappeared to the south, but many zombies were left in this shopping street. It seemed that the zombies inside couldn’t follow because of the car wall.”

From Lee Jun-ho’s explanation, I could understand how the shopping street became a zombie field.

Even in the other world, I hadn’t seen a zombie field created on this scale, but I had seen small-scale undead hordes left behind.

But it was a zombie field created absurdly.

In the end, all I had to do was get rid of the undead.

After hearing the explanation, I rolled my feet and climbed on top of the bus.

Grrr. Kyaak.

The store street in front of the bus was full of zombies.

Prettily dressed women, students in uniforms, even children playing around.

If they weren’t the dead, it would have looked like a street crowded with people on a holiday.

Standing on the bus, I surveyed the dead and frowned.

There were strange things mixed in the street that looked like a holiday.

While I was frowning and looking at the shopping district, the chief also climbed on top of the bus.

He stood next to me and opened his mouth.

“Because there are so many zombies gathered here, zombies have flowed out. Thanks to that, even if we keep killing them, zombies remain around the apartment.”

As expected, they weren’t just aiming to farm in the shopping district.

The chief was thinking of cleaning up this shopping district to stabilize the area around the apartment.

Next, he told me the reason why they couldn’t clean up this place until now.

“No matter how many zombies there are, if they were just ordinary zombies, I could have done something about it, but there are other things besides zombies in here.”

Where he pointed with his raised hand was the reason I had frowned.

Bones.

Not zombies with their living appearance remaining, but skeletons were wandering the streets.

It wasn’t just zombies that the Demon King’s army had left here.