Chapter 34 – A Sincere Conversation

We filled two space expansion pouches to capacity with supplies. We packed generators, electronics, various canned goods, milled rice and flour, dried foods, and daily necessities. We filled the pouches with several times the amount of supplies that 10 people had taken during the day.

Zahina looked curiously at the electronics I was gathering, but I brushed it off by saying I had learned how to use the items from the people here beforehand.

There were still many items left in the shopping mall. Even after we filled our pouches, plenty remained. Unlike during the day, the empty spaces where items had been taken were noticeable, but there were still enough supplies left for the apartment residents to use for several years. Of course, that’s assuming they could retrieve them.

After filling the pouches with supplies, we went back up to the rooftop. After infusing mana into my eyes and looking at the streets, the undead were scattered about just like when I first saw them.

‘It seems they return to their original positions after about half a day.’

Perhaps because they were the same type of undead, the dispersal speed was similar to that world.

Although the shopping mall rooftop was lower than other buildings, it wasn’t a problem. We just needed to reach the adjacent building.

I leaped forcefully from the rooftop and embedded my sword into the concrete wall of the neighboring building. Then I climbed back up to the rooftop and retraced our path.

Though we had gathered an enormous amount of supplies, the return journey wasn’t difficult since we carried them in pouches that didn’t increase in weight.

In the darkest hours before dawn, Zahina and I were able to return to the apartment.

The guard at the door had fallen asleep with his feet propped up on another chair he had brought from somewhere. Zahina stared at him blankly before going inside.

After a short sleep, I left the apartment again with the same people from the previous day. Like yesterday, I went out alone. Since I had successfully lured the undead by myself yesterday, no one seemed to mind me going alone.

My condition wasn’t bad. Though my sleep was short, it was likely due to the good accommodations. Since gaining mana, I could go without sleep for days, but resting and sleeping well improved my state just like for normal people.

With a refreshed expression, I headed towards the shopping district. The expressions of those walking with me weren’t bad either. Though they looked tired from carrying loads yesterday, it was because they had obtained supplies they couldn’t get for a long time. Plus, they now had hope.

“If we make round trips like this for a few days, we won’t have to worry about food or daily necessities for a while.”

“What do you mean ‘for a while’? We should take everything there is.”

A middle-aged man walking nearby refuted Lee Jun-ho’s cautious words.

“That’s right, that’s right.”

The other men carrying bags nodded in agreement, but the community leader’s brothers looked at the leader who was at the front.

They knew the leader had no intention of letting me and my party members stay here. It was the same as Lee Jun-ho, who now knew I had no plans to stay, watching my reactions.

Of course, the others who didn’t know these facts were full of hope.

Meanwhile, the community leader seemed to have a lot on his mind. Was he contemplating whether to try trapping us again or just let us go?

If he had known the safe was robbed, such worries would have been unnecessary, but judging by his expression, he didn’t seem to know about the safe being robbed.

“There are hardly any zombies on the road. I thought there would be quite a few that flowed out after we stirred up the shopping district yesterday.”

“There really aren’t any. Though there seem to be quite a few corpses.”

“With the community leader here, and… the knight too, it wouldn’t matter even if there were zombies, but it’s still more comfortable without them.”

People agreed with the community leader’s words. There was someone who almost stumbled over his words trying to be considerate of me, but fortunately no one paid attention.

‘Is it because of me?’

It seemed there were no undead left on the streets because Zahina and I had cleared them out while coming and going at night.

In any case, thanks to that, we were able to reach the entrance of the shopping district faster than yesterday.

The long wall of cars we saw yesterday. We climbed onto one of the trucks that formed part of the car wall.

“It looks like we’ll have to lure them again today.”

The community leader’s brothers grumbled at his words.

“No way, it’s not like they have a homing instinct or some program installed to find their original positions?”

With those words, everyone looked at me. I guess they meant to ask me to do it again today.

Contrary to my thoughts, the community leader spoke to me.

“I’m sorry about yesterday. Today, let’s move together.”

Is he really sorry? Of course not, but he must have some reason.

Whatever his intentions, it didn’t matter. If he hadn’t said it, I would have requested it myself. I was planning to reach a conclusion here today as well.

Since we had done it once yesterday, there was no need to coordinate signals separately. When the undead follow us, the remaining people can just run to the shopping mall.

‘This is only possible when there are only low-intelligence normal undead.’

If there were Demon King’s army or high-intelligence undead mixed in, even if they were lured away, it would have been impossible for ordinary people to run to the shopping mall.

And that was why I didn’t think this organization could continue to hold out even with the naturally awakened community leader.

If the Demon King’s army that had swept down like a tsunami came back up, or if a new Demon King’s army came down from the north, it would be over. Or even if intelligent undead were created as time passed, they wouldn’t be able to hold out.

Saying they’re fine because they’re in high-rise buildings. As someone who had rolled around with undead for a long time, it sounded completely nonsensical to me.

While the future of this organization looked bleak, I didn’t show any sign of it and jumped off the truck with the community leader.

Then, I ran forward, spreading mana in all directions.

“Follow well, don’t fall behind.”

Of course, I also said a word to the community leader who jumped down with me.

As expected, there wasn’t a single smart one. Although I moved exactly the same as yesterday, no undead reacted differently.

All the zombies, skeletons, and undead chased after me as I emitted mana.

The community leader followed surprisingly well. Interestingly, he found gaps in the horde of undead chasing after me.

Of course, it wasn’t completely empty since the undead were swarming, but it looked like he could run through those spots by pushing the undead aside.

‘Could that be a kind of trait too?’

Just as I developed mana detection and enhanced senses after gaining mana, some people with mana seemed to gain abilities different from others.

It was the same as Hoffman, who simply sensed mana, gaining skills useful for thievery.

Of course, the strange ability of the rabbit-eared Zahina was completely unfathomable, but the community leader’s ability to find spaces to run through was clearly such an ability.

‘Some kind of survival ability, perhaps.’

It was a common ability, if common. It was an ability often gained by those who had experienced war, and a lower version of my senses that had become close to superpowers.

Of course, it could be a different ability or a talent he originally had, but to me, it seemed like a trait that emerged after gaining mana.

Of course, whether it was a trait or not had become irrelevant now.

In fact, the community leader was of no help at all in my undead herding. He was more of a hindrance as I had to pay attention to him, but I adjusted my speed so he could keep up.

Pulling the undead through the streets, past the shopping mall to the opposite car wall.

When I reached near the opposite car wall, I entered the building across from the one I went into yesterday, not that building.

This building was also a mixed-use building, so the lower floors were full of shops, but unlike the shopping mall or jewelry stores, all the shops here had been looted.

The shops here were restaurants and convenience stores selling perishable foods, and stores selling daily necessities, so the people who first dominated this street had taken everything.

After that, an undead wave would have swept through once more through the broken doors.

It didn’t look safer than the building we entered yesterday, but I deliberately came into this building.

I didn’t want to show that the jewelry store had been robbed, and this messy building was perfect for carrying out the plan.

As I went deeper into the building past the wrecked shops, I withdrew the mana I had been emitting.

As I withdrew the mana, most of the zombies that had been chasing us into the building stopped in their tracks.

Thanks to that, the community leader who entered the building with me could catch his breath.

Although he ran to places with fewer undead, it wasn’t just running, and he must have been several times more tense than me while running.

However, I had no intention of letting him relax his guard.

“Don’t stop. There are still some chasing us.”

While most of the zombies lost track of us inside the building, the skeletons kept moving.

They were low-ranking skeletons that had fallen behind during the wave, but still, as part of the Demon King’s army, the skeletons were different from ordinary zombies.

Even after the mana was cut off, the skeletons kept running towards us.

We kept moving, avoiding the skeletons.

The skeletons moved quite fast, unlike rotten bones, but we were faster.

We found the emergency stairs and kept going up, running up to about the 10th floor, and locked the emergency door in front of the stairs.

“Let’s catch our breath here for a moment, then go to the shopping mall.”

“Huff, huff. Let’s do that.”

Although he was a natural awakener, it seemed it wasn’t easy to keep up with me running.

The community leader leaned against the wall, panting heavily.

Looking at the community leader, I activated mana detection and heightened my senses.

I could feel everything moving not just on this floor, but on several floors above and below.

As expected, the skeletons were steadily climbing up.

There was still time before they would reach here, but it seemed there was no worry about losing us.

While I was observing the skeletons, the community leader seemed to have caught his urgent breath.

He took a deep breath and then asked me.

“The zombies are filling up below, how do we get to the shopping mall?”

I had been wondering why the community leader followed me from earlier, but now I think I understood the reason from his current question.

It was to find out how to escape after luring the undead.

I thought he might be trying to set another trap, but the reason was much more ordinary than I expected.

“I’ll let you know when we go to the shopping mall in a bit.”

I was planning to tell him the escape method.

The method of going up to the rooftop and crossing over to another building.

Of course, he wouldn’t be able to follow, but that wasn’t my concern.

And there was no guarantee he would listen even if I told him.

I didn’t know if he would be able to answer my questions properly.

I said to the community leader whose breathing had returned to normal.

“Now that we’re alone like this, how about we speak candidly to each other?”

At my words, the community leader looked a bit surprised, then immediately sighed.

“So it comes to this after all. I’ll tell you the locations of other communities. There are much larger places than here that would be good for you to stay at.”

He who had been speaking down to me resumed using honorifics.

The content of those honorifics was also about the locations of other communities that I wanted.

“I’ll tell you the locations of the communities, so I’d appreciate it if you could leave right away.”

The following words also expressed his true intention of wanting me to leave.

Those were his own kind of candid words. They must have come out after much deliberation.

Of course, they were too late for me, and useless words.

Those weren’t the words I wanted to hear now.

“I already know that. I knew you originally planned to kill me and take Zahina.”

For the first time in a while, I raised my sword towards a person.

I say it’s been a while, but it wasn’t that long ago.

It’s not like I didn’t fight people even while fighting the undead.

At my words, the community leader’s face changed drastically.

The face that looked like the leader of an organization changed to the face of a thug.

That must be his true nature.

“I also know that you killed many people in other districts before becoming the community leader. I have evidence of your lies too.”

“Then what do you want to know?”

He raised his iron club and shouted at me.

I kindly answered his question.

“Everything you know.”

The words I wanted to hear from him now were the information I needed to extract as much as possible before killing him.

It didn’t matter if I gained nothing.

It was just incidental anyway.

There wasn’t much time until the skeletons came up. I raised my sword and approached him.