Chapter 44 – Drive (1)

Vroom.

After a long silence, the car finally started.

I clenched my fist at the sight.

It was a ridiculous plan – using a gasoline generator powered by fuel siphoned from other cars to start a car with a dead battery – but since it worked, it turned out to be a brilliant solution.

Actually, there were many other ways to start a car besides the crude method of using a gasoline generator.

There were jump starters sold at auto shops and online, and methods using batteries from other cars.

However, those methods all required electricity, which wasn’t available now.

I’d heard that older cars could be push-started, but there was no way to know which cars could do that.

In the end, we had to use this crude but reliable method.

The generator’s noise attracted undead, but the car started quickly enough that we wouldn’t get trapped.

“Both of you, get in quickly!”

I shouted to the two people holding back the approaching zombies.

While I was starting the car, party members were holding off zombies from behind cars piled up like barricades.

With the cars blocking the initial approach, the party members could handle the rest.

Of course, if the start had been delayed and more zombies had accumulated, neither could have held out, but fortunately, the car started in time.

At my shout, Hoffman kicked away an attacking zombie and ran over, while Zahina pointed at the cars blocking the road.

“Set the cars on fire.”

With her words, the cars making up the barricade began to burn.

While we had sprayed gasoline on the cars when making the barricade, Zahina ignited them more easily than throwing Molotov cocktails.

Zombies trying to climb over the cars were engulfed in flames.

The two jumped into the car through the door I’d left open, and I stepped hard on the accelerator.

VROOOM!

The car shot forward.

“Whoa!”

As the car lurched forward, Hoffman made a commotion in the back, and even Zahina looked surprised.

They apparently hadn’t expected this horseless carriage to jump forward like this.

“Could there be a wild horse’s spirit in here? Why is it so violent?”

It wasn’t a wild horse’s spirit – I was just driving violently.

Even I was overwhelmed, perhaps because it had been so long since I’d driven.

Abandoned cars blocked the road ahead, burning cars were visible behind us, and zombies were swarming toward the car from all around.

Moreover, the driver was operating a car for the first time in 20 years, so safe driving was impossible.

Still, the skills of a mana-wielding knight weren’t to be underestimated.

Not long after grabbing the wheel, I was able to recover my former skills.

After skillfully maneuvering through the abandoned cars, the car drove forward while swerving past approaching zombies.

“I really didn’t think it would move.”

Hoffman, now settled, spoke to me in amazement, and though Zahina in the passenger seat said nothing, she kept stroking the dashboard while looking around.

“Come to think of it, when did you learn to drive? You’re really skilled.”

“I learned it along with how to start the car when we went to the commercial district.”

I could easily answer Hoffman’s expected question.

Of course, it was a lie.

In my previous life, I was a proud owner-driver with a Class 1 license.

Though I’d never driven a manual transmission car except when getting my license,

I was confident driving automatic cars.

“Well, with Sir Knight’s reflexes, you could probably handle it easily just from hearing the theory…”

Without further explanation, Hoffman believed my lie thanks to the knight’s outstanding abilities.

Again, I couldn’t tell if Zahina believed me, but since she didn’t say anything, I decided to let it pass as usual.

As the car began moving smoothly, Hoffman leaned back in his seat and looked behind.

“Was all that trouble unnecessary? If I’d known we’d be traveling this comfortably, I wouldn’t have cursed those people back then…”

As he got comfortable, Hoffman seemed to recall the recent events.

While breaking through the gathering zombies, Hoffman had cursed the people who had thrown corpses.

If even half his curses came true, the people in that building would already be suffering eternally in hell.

“No, what’s wrong with cursing enemies? Maybe it’s because I haven’t been taking potions lately. I feel my heart’s getting weak… Huh? What’s that?”

Speaking like the drug addict he was, Hoffman ended with an exclamation of surprise.

His extremely startled tone made me instinctively check the rearview mirror.

In the mirror, I could see the residential-commercial building where corpses had fallen onto the burning cars.

Either the mirror was discolored from age, or the building appeared stained black.

Moreover, something like giant vines was wrapping around the blackened building walls.

They clearly weren’t ordinary vines. The black, burnt-looking vines, or rather tentacles, were wrapping around and climbing up the building walls.

“The size is ridiculous, but it looks like a black octopus… Am I seeing this right?”

I wanted to disagree with Hoffman, but the monster visible in the mirror did resemble an octopus as he said.

Like a black-coated octopus…

The thought suddenly reminded me of an undead I’d heard rumors about.

“I’ve never seen or heard of anything like that before, could it be an undead too?”

Unfortunately, I had heard of it.

A massive undead that appeared covered in black porcelain.

It was a huge undead created from the accumulated grudges of countless people who died at sea.

The grudges of those who drowned gathered together, transforming into one terrifying being.

In that other world, ships sunk in porcelain-polluted seas had created a giant sea serpent.

The legendary king of the sea, Sea Servant.

The great sea serpent that had disappeared hundreds of years ago had returned with a black body.

And after causing suffering to island nations, it was eventually vanquished by the hero’s party.

“Black Sea Servant.”

“You mean the sea monster that was defeated by the hero’s party? Was it actually an undead?”

To promote the hero, people were told it wasn’t an undead but a legendary dragon revived by the Demon King.

Actually, when you think about it, it wasn’t much different from a legendary dragon.

The grudges of the dead had revived a legendary being according to the legend.

“But that was a legendary dragon, and what we’re seeing now is just an octopus…”

That point confused me too.

“Surely it can’t be an octopus because this is Korea…”

While octopi were indeed fearsome creatures in this world, in Korea they were more delicious food than scary monsters.

Surely this one wouldn’t be tasty either.

Regardless, I seemed to understand how such a creature had appeared.

This undead was created by us – no, by me.

The result of dropping hundreds of zombies under the bridge.

I’d expected something impressive would emerge, but never imagined it would be such a monster.

While I was more dumbfounded than Hoffman, his surprised voice reached me.

“Whoa! Is it actually destroying that?”

As I avoided abandoned cars, I checked the rearview mirror again.

The vines, no, tentacles wrapping around the building were visibly thickening.

And those tentacles were distorting the building walls.

Glass shattered and concrete crumbled.

Crack-crack-crack.

The sound of steel frame crumpling seemed to reach us even here.

But as Hoffman said, it seemed difficult to destroy such a massive building.

Unless it was poorly constructed, destroying a steel-reinforced concrete residential-commercial building shouldn’t be easy.

BOOM.

My prediction was quickly proven wrong.

“Was it really poor construction?”

The building that had been crumpling under the tentacles finally began to collapse.

The residential-commercial building, breaking in half as if its waist had folded, filled the rearview mirror.

Seeing that sight, I unconsciously pressed harder on the pedal.

VROOM.

The car that had been moving leisurely sped up again.

As the car shook again, party members grabbed the armrests and handles.

“They must all be dead now that it’s collapsed like that?”

I nodded at Zahina’s question.

No one could survive such a high-rise building collapse.

Even if someone somehow survived inside that collapsed building, they would eventually die anyway.

Since no one would come to rescue them.

I felt no guilt toward the dead at Zahina’s words.

After all, the people in that building had already become my enemies recently.

One enemy had simply killed another enemy.

Actually, that wasn’t the real problem.

Hoffman looked worriedly at the collapsing building.

“Whether it’s a legendary dragon or not, surely it’s not following us?”

That was the problem.

We couldn’t tell if it was just taking the same path or actually following us.

We couldn’t wait to confirm either.

In the end, we could only flee while trying to determine if it was following us.

Running away initially had been the right choice.

Of course, I hadn’t expected such a monster to appear, but creatures like that should be handled by the hero’s party, not ordinary parties like ours.

I licked my lips and gripped the steering wheel tightly.

“Both of you hold on tight!”

I’d dreamed of a leisurely drive through abandoned cars after seeing the generator, but that dream seemed impossible now.

“What drive – I should stick to driving carriages when I get back.”

Excessive dreams were just unhealthy.

I stepped hard on the accelerator, and

VROOM!

The car sped quickly between abandoned cars.

“Ahhh! This isn’t some unicorn carrying a married woman!”

Hoffman’s screams echoed inside the speeding car.

* * *

Time passed after the building collapsed.

The dust that had filled the streets settled.

The monster that destroyed the building absorbed a few corpses with its tentacles before heading south.

The city block where the building stood had turned into ruins, as if after an earthquake and war.

None of the adjacent buildings looked intact either.

There seemed to be no survivors in the vicinity besides the collapsed building.

The road beside the building had turned white with debris and dust.

Abandoned cars had been thrown and flipped, turning into wreckage.

Among those wrecked cars, one vehicle suddenly twitched.

That car kept wobbling until finally rolling over and crashing to the ground.

THUD.

A person lay where the car had been moved.

It was a young woman with her hand raised up.

Covered in white dust, the woman stared blankly at her outstretched hand.

In front of her extended hand, white dust particles were clumped together like a ball floating in the air.

After staring at the dust ball for a while, the woman got up.

She stood looking at the collapsed building for a long time.

“I don’t understand. Why did I survive? Why did I suddenly get this power?”

The woman spoke while extending her hand over the road.

As she reached out, the dust accumulated on the road split in half and pushed aside.

Along with it, the cars blocking the way moved too.

“Did those people get the same power as me?”

The woman looked south down the road.

The monster that had followed the knight cosplayers south was no longer visible.

“Since the monster seems to be following them, it should be easier if I follow behind the monster?”

Perhaps because the monster had swept through, no zombies remained on the road.

“I don’t know why I survived or why I got this power, but I should repay my debt, right?”

She took one last look at the collapsed building, then picked up an iron pipe from the ground.

Then, grabbing an abandoned backpack, she began walking along the road.

Following the monster, following the knight’s group.