Chapter 33 – Shopping (2)

As I examined the notebook, Hoffman said with a regretful expression:

“If the text had been translated, we wouldn’t have needed to bring it, but since we can’t read it, we had no choice.”

It was natural that Hoffman couldn’t read it. The writing on the documents and notebook was in Korean.

The translation magic Zahina cast on us was a kind of telepathy, so the written text remained unchanged.

“It doesn’t matter if we’re caught. They’ll only be suspicious, but they won’t be certain we did it.”

Our relationship was already strained, so it didn’t matter if we were caught.

“I’ll find out the contents tomorrow. I think I can ask Lee Jun-ho, whom we rescued.”

In fact, I could read it all here, but I couldn’t reveal to the two of them that I knew Korean yet.

Although they were quite suspicious, I had no intention of volunteering a confession.

I might end up telling them someday as we travel together, but we could also part ways before that.

I didn’t plan to show the notebook and documents to Lee Jun-ho. I would read them and say I heard it from him.

It wouldn’t matter if I asked him later. I could just say I told everyone to keep it a secret.

“Is that so? That’s a shame. If we had more time, I could have read it.”

Zahina, who was sitting in a corner reading a book, said to me.

When I looked at her with a puzzled expression, she showed me the book she was reading.

“There was a textbook for learning letters. With the help of the women living here, I’ve memorized all the letters. Now I’m memorizing words.”

The cover of the book she showed me had pictures of children and the title “Korean Education Starting with Pictures.”

It seemed Zahina had taken the opportunity to learn the writing while talking to people today.

To memorize all the letters in one day while doing other things was no easy feat, even if Korean is said to be easy.

If the magic she cast on us wasn’t automatic translation like telepathy, but a spell to speak and understand Korean, she might have already been able to read Korean.

The other two organizations confirmed in the notebook were in the west and south, in Seoul and Hanam below the Han River.

I hadn’t finished reading the notebook yet, so I couldn’t decide which direction to go, but I did decide when to depart.

The departure date was tomorrow, or the day after at the latest. I planned to finish what needed to be done before then.

“Since you worked hard last night, Hoffman, get a good rest tonight. Zahina, come out with me for a bit.”

At my words, Zahina just nodded without asking anything.

Even in this situation, she didn’t ask anything – Zahina seemed a bit different from the elves I knew.

As time passed and the clock on the wall showed it was past 1 o’clock, Zahina and I left the house.

Unlike Hoffman, we simply opened the door and went out into the hallway.

There was still someone standing guard in front of the house, but he was sitting in the hallway, nodding off.

After carrying luggage and running during the day, then drinking after returning, it was no wonder he wasn’t alert.

We came out through the door normally because we knew the guard was dozing off.

‘Whether they’re reserve forces or whatever, they were civilians until recently.’

Zahina and I passed by the dozing man and went down the stairs.

Although we were moving again at night after herding zombies during the day, I wasn’t that tired.

It was partly due to the mana circulating in my body, but also because I had been through much tougher days before.

I had experience resisting for weeks inside a fortress surrounded by the Demon King’s army and undead hordes, and being chased by chimera legions, climbing mountains for days without sleep.

Compared to those experiences, tonight was more like a walk in the park.

Unlike when we went down the stairs with others during the day, Zahina and I ran down the stairs floor by floor.

Coming down several times faster than during the day, we headed to the shopping district we had visited earlier.

A dark night with no moon visible.

With the streetlights off, the streets were pitch black.

It was the perfect night to die if you encountered undead.

However, that was only for ordinary people without mana.

I infused mana into my eyes.

Though invisible, my eyes would be glowing faintly.

As I infused mana, the surroundings began to appear in black and white.

This alone wasn’t enough to see the surroundings as clearly as during the day, but I had another method.

I sharpened my senses. Along with mana detection, my senses had been inexplicably enhanced since coming to this world.

It wasn’t a superpower like mana detection, but the sensations of my whole body – sound, smell, even the feeling of air brushing against my skin – informed me of my surroundings in real-time.

‘This might as well be called a superpower.’

Ridiculously, I could sense my surroundings better now at night than during the day before crossing the gate.

I ran through the streets, savoring these new sensations.

Zahina followed well behind me.

However, her eyes didn’t glow like mine. It seemed she hadn’t infused mana into her eyes.

For someone who hadn’t, she was following me without difficulty.

She must have been using her abilities as a nature mage.

In any case, since she was following well without problems, I increased my speed without worry.

There were some zombies wandering the streets even at night, but they couldn’t stop our progress.

In a few minutes, we arrived at the car wall at the entrance of the shopping district.

During the day, we had climbed over that car wall and crossed the street, but there was no reason to do so now when we weren’t with ordinary people.

Instead of climbing the car wall, we headed for the building next to it.

Next to the car wall stood a 29-story mixed-use building.

I had heard earlier that they made it 29 stories because they didn’t want to make a 30th floor refuge, so it must be a 29-story building.

An abandoned building with all the windows shattered up to the 5th floor, and some broken windows here and there above that.

The cleanliness of the upper floors and the messiness of the lower floors created a strange atmosphere.

Now wasn’t the time to appreciate such an atmosphere.

After looking at Zahina, I launched myself towards the building wall.

The exterior wall came right up to my face in just two steps.

At that moment, I kicked off the ground with all my might.

Thud.

The ground shook, and my body soared upward.

Passing the 1st and 2nd floors, the 3rd floor window came into view.

Since this was a shopping building, the 3rd floor must be over 10 meters high.

If so, I had jumped over 10 meters after a short run-up.

I must have jumped much higher than before, right?

Thinking that, I thrust the sword I was holding into the wall.

Fortunately, as it was a reinforced concrete building, the sword embedded well into the exterior wall.

After stopping my body by plunging the sword in, I kicked the wall again while pulling out the sword.

Carefully, so as not to bounce outwards.

I shot straight up again.

Though I was a former thief, there was no way I couldn’t do what Hoffman, who could barely sense mana, had done.

I couldn’t climb the wall without being detected like Hoffman, but if I didn’t care about noise, climbing a building like this wasn’t difficult.

Zahina was following well.

Seeing the wind blowing from where she was climbing, it seemed she was using her magic, the power of nature, rather than moving by force like me.

A moment later, we were able to stand on the building’s rooftop.

An empty, ordinary building rooftop. It seemed no one had fled to this rooftop.

Standing at the edge of the rooftop, I stretched lightly.

“I never thought I’d be doing something I’d seen in movies…”

Of course, it wasn’t something someone who had just climbed a building vertically in armor should say, but I had never seen such a sight in movies.

What I was about to do now was something I had seen once or twice in movies, anime, or games.

Honestly, it was something I had wanted to try at least once.

Zahina stared at me intently at my muttering. I shrugged at her gaze.

Since she had followed well so far, there seemed to be no need to worry about Zahina.

Anyway, I had explained all the methods of moving to the shopping mall when we set out. Since she hadn’t said she couldn’t do it, there shouldn’t be a problem this time either.

I started running across the rooftop.

Tap, tap, tap-tap,

The railing appeared in front of me before I had taken more than a few steps.

I launched my body straight ahead.

Whoosh!

The railing quickly passed behind me, and the ground became visible below my feet.

A two-lane road and sidewalk, with undead wandering on them.

Is it because I had never jumped from such a high place before?

It felt like I was flying through the sky.

Unfortunately, that feeling ended quickly.

Because my feet touched the ground right away.

I had arrived on the rooftop of the adjacent building.

Turning back in disappointment, I saw Zahina launching herself from the rooftop.

She lifted her body gently.

Unlike me, who must have looked crude, she looked almost like a ballerina taking flight, but it seemed impossible for her to cross over to this building.

It looked like she would fall midway, but I stood still and watched her.

Wind began to blow around her as she floated in the air.

And, perhaps because of the wind, her body floating in the air descended very slowly.

As if a paper was falling, or as if she had launched herself from the moon, she descended onto this building as if flying through the sky.

As expected, she was good at everything except fighting.

No, if I kept handing her weapons and ammunition, was she good at fighting too?

Anyway, now that I had confirmed she had crossed over well, I decided to keep moving.

After that, Zahina and I continued jumping across buildings.

Being a shopping district, there were places where the gaps were narrow enough for even ordinary people to jump across, but there were also places where the gaps between buildings were wide enough to have a two-lane road in between.

If Hoffman had come along, we wouldn’t have been able to jump between buildings like this.

After jumping across several buildings like that, we were able to arrive at our destination, the shopping mall.

Unlike other buildings, it was lower in height so we had to come down halfway to jump across, but we were able to reach the shopping mall without setting foot on the industrial district streets.

Standing on the shopping mall rooftop, I opened the space expansion pouch at my waist.

The space expansion pouch I had and another pouch given by the dead magician.

First, I reached in and took out important items.

The items the magician asked to be delivered and items to be given to the families of the dead.

And a few items that shouldn’t be thrown away, like holy water, and the precious metals obtained during the day.

After taking out the important items and placing them in one corner of the rooftop, I stood at the rooftop railing and held the wide-open space expansion pouch upside down.

Powders pouring out over the rooftop edge.

They were all the food and grains I had collected so far.

Food and grains I had diligently collected whenever I had the chance since before the war.

Thanks to these grains, I didn’t have to worry about food even during the war.

They were grateful food and grains, but now they were items that had to be discarded.

Coming to this world and eating properly made food, I had no desire to return to my original taste.

There was no reason to keep half-rotten flour mixed with sand when the shopping mall was full of food and grains made with modern technology.

After discarding all the food I had been carrying like that, Zahina and I picked the lock on the rooftop door and entered the shopping mall.

Passing through the ground-level parking floors and going down to the basement, we were greeted by the shopping mall we had seen during the day.

Looking at the smelly shopping mall, I handed one space expansion pouch to Zahina.

“Fill it with rice, wheat, and grains mainly.”

With her magic, she should be able to easily fill the pouch with grains.

Meanwhile, I had to gather other items.

The ‘gasoline generator’ I had seen during the day and electronic devices. Various tools and daily necessities.

And games.

With the generator, I could play games.

A new version of the game I played in my previous life had been released!

Now that I had found a way to get money to buy territory, it was time to enjoy cultural life.

I first picked up the green fairy game whose protagonist’s name is often misunderstood.