Chapter 31 – Shopping District (2)

While examining the scattered skulls on the streets, the community leader continued speaking.

“Even though we’ve gained one person, with those bones around, we can’t clear this entire street.”

I could have easily objected, but I silently listened to his words.

“Our task today is to enter the shopping mall in the center of the street, grab supplies, and get out.”

As he spoke, I saw the familiar shopping mall he was pointing at.

A foreign-owned mall with all floors above ground used as parking, and shops in the basement.

With the stores underground, if we were lucky, the mall’s interior might be well-preserved.

Conversely, it could also be an undead hell.

Either way, the mall was in the center of the street swarming with undead.

It seemed impossible for others to reach the mall building through the undead, except perhaps for me or the community leader.

Surely the community leader knows this too? Unless…

“While people go back and forth to the mall, you and I will lure the zombies on the street elsewhere. It’s difficult alone, but with two or more, we should be able to lure them sufficiently.”

It was an obvious story.

A common and ordinary plan, easy to plant traps in.

It was so obvious, it was almost ridiculous.

‘More importantly, there are bones in his words.’

He was blaming himself for leaving his party members at the apartment and coming alone.

Moreover, after testing the waters, he now even dropped formalities.

Has he already forgotten being knocked out by me?

He was a more interesting man than I thought.

I hadn’t easily seen such men in our world. Commoners who acted this way towards knights didn’t survive.

The community leader and I pulled people onto a truck next to the bus.

People looked at the undead on the street with disgusted faces.

Once everyone was on board, the community leader explained his strategy to the group.

As he told me, the plan was for him and me to lure the undead while the others run to the mall.

A predictable and sloppy plan where once people safely reach the mall, he and I would shake off the lured undead and join them, repeating the luring process on the way back.

Success depended on how well he and I lured the undead.

It was a strange plan where, if my skills were even slightly lacking, no one’s life could be guaranteed except the community leader’s.

If I hadn’t overheard the community leader’s words yesterday, it would have been a completely incomprehensible plan.

The community leader seemed to half-hope for this operation to fail, but I couldn’t understand why the others would agree to follow his plan.

Thinking this, I looked at the people, but they were staring at me with sparkling eyes.

“We… we trust only you, Sir Knight.”

“With your skills and that armor, you should be fine even if zombies bite you.”

Is it because of me?

It seemed the community leader had greatly exaggerated my abilities when explaining.

If something goes wrong, does it become my fault?

To come up with such a plan in just one day.

This man called the community leader was more interesting and impressive than I thought.

It seemed I no longer needed to worry.

It was time for me to decide how to deal with the community leader.

Even though I had made a decision, I wasn’t going to do anything to him right here and now.

I still needed him alive for now.

I didn’t raise any objections to his shoddy plan.

His strategy wasn’t too different from what I wanted anyway.

“Follow right behind when we start.”

As everyone seemed ready, the community leader spoke to me.

I couldn’t help but smile at his words, clearly intending to use me thoroughly.

I lowered my helmet and jumped off the truck first.

Thud.

Despite jumping from a height in thick plate armor, the sound was barely audible.

It was too small a noise to lure undead, but I had no intention of luring them with sound anyway.

There were quite a few undead who couldn’t hear sounds.

The community leader might be looking perplexed, expecting me to make noise to attract the undead, but instead of sound, I emitted mana in abundance.

Whoosh!

Semi-materialized mana spread in all directions, making the air around my body ripple.

As the mana spread, I could feel the death energy surrounding the undead fluctuating as it collided with the mana.

It was a sight only those like me who could sense mana could perceive, but what followed was visible to all.

Grrrr.

All the undead whose death energy had fluctuated turned to look at me.

The sight of dozens, hundreds of zombies and skeletons simultaneously staring at me was chilling no matter how many times I saw it.

The technique I just used wasn’t unique to me.

It was an undead luring method that any knight who could emit mana outwards could use.

In game terms, it was a tank’s aggro (luring) skill.

It was useful not only for gathering undead to kill them but also perfect for luring them away.

Roar!

The undead, the zombies wandering the streets, began to charge.

The nearby zombies were already close enough to touch my body.

Instead of fighting, I started running.

Tap tap tap.

Nimble steps as if not wearing armor at all.

I slipped through the charging zombies like an eel, using the slippery slopes of my armor.

The community leader might have hoped for me to die surrounded while luring zombies, but I had no such intention.

In fact, I could have stood in one place and kept fighting the swarming zombies, but I had something to do while luring them.

I continued running, with hordes of zombies and skeletons chasing behind me.

Across the street, past the front of the mall, to the back streets.

As I kept emitting mana while running, almost all the undead rushed towards me.

Running like that, I jumped into a building. It looked like an upscale building.

Just before leaping into the building, I withdrew the mana I had been emitting outwards.

I had lured the undead more than enough for the community leader’s plan.

I couldn’t keep the undead trailing behind me forever.

I had already done more than my share, so the rest was up to them to handle.

Even though I withdrew my mana, not all the undead following would turn back.

However, by withdrawing the mana as soon as I entered the building, not many undead followed.

Undead breaking windows and jumping in.

I looked around as I heard the sound of windows shattering.

Fortunately, the interior of the building wasn’t different from what I had imagined.

“I’ve found the right place.”

It was where I wanted to be. Now that I had arrived at my destination, it was time to deal with the nuisances.

Standing in the center of the building, I turned around.

Zombies and skeletons climbing over the broken windows.

I could see dozens of undead rushing towards me.

I raised my sword.

* * *

A few minutes earlier.

Cmmunity leader Yang Gi-hyeok was frowning as he watched the man running with a horde of zombies behind him.

Nothing was going according to plan.

Yang Gi-hyeok hadn’t expected the armored man to simply follow his plan after hearing it.

It was a flimsy plan even by his own admission.

Yang Gi-hyeok had planned to pressure the man using other people if he objected.

That’s why he had been exaggerating the knight’s abilities to people all morning.

If he got approval after pressuring him that way, he could proceed with the operation, and if he kept refusing, he planned to make him lose people’s trust.

If they just went back, it would be a waste of time, but politics was about building things up slowly over time.

Even taking control of the apartment was done by carefully persuading people over time.

But that armor-wearing guy just accepted the plan like a pushover.

If he were really a pushover, there would be no worries, but that armored man wasn’t even that.

Yang Gi-hyeok had thought the man would lure zombies by banging on his armor when he saw him just jump down.

But the man took all the zombies away using a strange method.

It seemed like the zombies rushed towards him when he emitted something like wind from his body.

Did he emit some scent that zombies liked?

Anyway, since he lured the zombies away so effortlessly, he would likely return just as unscathed.

People, unaware that Yang G-ihyeok’s plan had gone awry, praised the knight with surprised faces.

“He took them all by himself. Looks like you don’t even need to step in, Chief.”

“Really amazing, isn’t he?”

As the praise continued, someone glanced at the community leader.

“It’s just as you said, Chief.”

With those words, the praise immediately stopped.

Instead, people brought up other topics.

“I think we can leave now.”

“Let’s go quickly too. If we’re too late, the zombies might come back.”

Though said to change the subject, it wasn’t wrong.

There were hardly any zombies left on the street from where they were to the mall.

Only a few zombies with broken legs and damaged bodies were flailing about on this street, while the rest had gathered in a block beyond the mall.

As the zombies gathered in the block were starting to disperse, they needed to move now, as people said.

“Let’s go.”

Since there was no need to lure zombies, the community leader headed to the mall with the others.

And thanks to the community leader going along, the group was able to reach the mall easily.

Though overshadowed by the bizarre sight of him leading a zombie horde, the community leader’s skills weren’t to be underestimated.

He could easily handle the few remaining zombies.

Crossing the street like that, the mall they arrived at was fortunately not a zombie paradise.

Iron gates were lowered at the mall entrance, and carts were piled up in front of the escalators leading underground.

It was a barricade built by people who had tried to make this street a safe zone.

The basement hypermarket they reached after opening the iron gates and climbing over the barricade was full of rotten smells instead of zombies.

Despite the foul odor, people’s expressions were bright.

It was because many items remained in the mall.

“You know, food comes first. Fill your bags with items that have long shelf lives!”

At the community leader’s words, people with flashlights rushed into the dark mall with excited faces.

Watching this scene from behind, Yang Gi-hyeok sighed.

Was it a case of making do with what they had?

Though things didn’t go as planned, they managed to get food at least, so he had to be satisfied with that for today.

Yang Gi-hyeok stood in front of the row of checkout counters at the mall entrance, looking around inside.

Although many items had already rotted and about half the goods were gone, the remaining items seemed enough for the apartment residents to last several months or even over a year.

In this situation, he needed to isolate the organization even more.

If other groups found out about this, he would have to share his power.

He knew he wasn’t the only one with superpowers, but seeing the armored man’s group, he couldn’t even guess how many others might be stronger than him.

“Should I give them a gift and send them away nicely?”

It didn’t seem easy to kill them in the future either, so if push came to shove, he might have to find some usable luxury items from the display in front and hand them over, then send them to another organization.

While thinking this and staring blankly inside, he heard footsteps from behind.

The sound of metal stepping on the floor.

It was the footsteps of the armored knight.

The community leader immediately relaxed his expression and turned around.

As expected, the armored man, the knight, was coming down the escalator unharmed.

The community leader looked at the knight’s wrist, thinking of gifting him a watch.

However, on his arm, with the gauntlet removed, a luxury watch known for its durability was already worn.