Chapter 60 – 60. New Gate (2)

“I’ll be back for a little while, so I’ll just keep going like this.”

“Yes, be careful.”

After sending my group toward the apartment, I took a side street for a while and headed toward the building where 40 Dongyeong High School students had been chopped to death yesterday.

My companions also wanted to come with me, but there was a high possibility that there were still zombies, so I decided that it would be better for me to quickly go alone while wearing the perception-impairing ring.

If you rush around for no reason, it’s easier to get caught.

“Hmm…?”

But yesterday, the closer I got to that commercial building, the louder the sound, like a car starting, became increasingly louder.

I was afraid that I might attract their attention by talking to myself, so I quickly stuffed a towel in my mouth and gagged myself. After that, I continued to observe them.

‘What are those bastards doing now…’

Soldiers were gathered around the burned down building. They set fire to that place yesterday, so the bodies of those who died in that building must have already been burned..

‘They must have gathered there after seeing the flames… They must have killed all the zombies while they were there… Huh? What. Those bastards now..’

They were smoking cigarettes and gathering the corpses of dead zombies in one place to burn them. I guess those bastards haven’t already burned the Dongyeong High School guys I killed…?

‘What the fuck..’

You must overcome one labyrinth to receive a green reward box. It takes about 5 hours to break through the labyrinth, so if they burned all the corpses of the Dongyeong High school students I caught, I would have missed three low- to mid-level simple labyrinths.

I lost almost 15 hours!

‘There was only one green box for every 10 non-awakened people.. Oh, what a shame..’

In addition, there were apparently about eight awakened people. Since one blue reward box is given to five awakened people, if even these people are lost, a huge loss is expected.

‘But what comes out of the blue reward box…’

I don’t know because I haven’t opened it yet. I plan to open it later when I get to my apartment. If something heavy comes out, it will be difficult to carry it.

However, if you drive around in a car, you will most likely attract the aggro of zombies, and there is a high risk of being caught by soldiers, so you shouldn’t do that.

‘Huh…?’

However, upon closer inspection, it seemed that there were still corpses in the building where I had chopped to death about 30 gangsters while going up to the roof yesterday.

For some reason, they didn’t drag the bodies out of that building and burn them.

‘Why..? Why…’

As I was thinking about the reason, a soldier who was smoking on the first floor shouted towards the building.

“Hey!”

“Yes! Sergeant Hwang!!”

As he shouted, another soldier hurriedly stuck his head out toward the staircase window. I focused on the conversation between the two people.

“Have you finished checking inside the building?”

“That’s right, they say they can see the memories of the fallen, albeit vaguely.”

Memories of the fallen? Could it be that there is someone who can read the memories of dead people? What a strange thing..

“Fuck.. What on earth are you doing? “They say it’s one person who left traces.”

“Yes! “I’m sure one person killed them all.”

“What about the face?”

“Other than having a thick head, he doesn’t have any special features.”

“Haa.. There are not just one or two fucking heads.. Hey! You and I are tight!”

“Uh…? Is that right? If so, could he possibly be a deserter? You know, that bastard who deserted while saying he was some kind of returnee.”

“Huh? Deserter? Huh… If you have to kill people to get a skill to become stronger… That makes sense. But that bastard who was a returnee or something was caught?”

“Uh.. I don’t know either, right?”

“Fuck.. It’s so damn ugly..”

He’s already figured out some of my traces. Maybe there is someone among them who owns trace observation.

‘I think they’re assuming he’s a deserter.. What is a returner?.. Where did he return from?’

What do returnsees do? What is going on in this world? If the returner I am thinking of he is the one who returned to reality from another world… He may be someone related to the Gate incident.

‘Fuck… If you find out, isn’t this world like some kind of novel…?’

If this goes on like this, the possessed person, the reincarnated person, and the reincarnated person will crawl out.

‘The thoughts are getting longer again… Enough of the random thoughts… First of all, the important thing is…’

What’s really important now is not the unidentified returnee. It’s true that soon the investigation net will gradually narrow, and it won’t be long before they might track me down.

‘That’s not possible… ‘

Rather, a full-blown disaster has begun and everything has been ruined. So, it may be a month from now, but if they get caught now, they will be dragged away.

I don’t want to be sacrificed to feed faceless people. I don’t want to sacrifice my people.

“But Sergeant Hwang. What are we going to do with this murderous bastard?”

“This guy… He killed all the people by himself… And he even he set fire to the building, so he’s so fucking dangerous… We need to catch him.”

“Ha… I’m scared…”

“I’m really fucking scared too. “Zombies are scary, but there are also killers walking around, won.”

“That’s right. Such a dangerous guy… We need to catch him quickly. Why do we have to catch him? Why don’t we just pretend today never happened and go back? Leave the tracking of this guy to others.. .”

“Sangbyeong Park. I heard that if you catch these guys these days, you’ll get a reward.”

“Okay? No, fuck it. Why do they give rewards but not vacations? Sigh.. Fuck.. I fucking want to go home. “I have to go see my parents..”

“Hey! Fuck! What kid here doesn’t want to go home! Phew.. Let’s stop talking and get this over with quickly.”

“Yes.” “I understand.”

When the story of family came up, their mood suddenly became somber. Soon their conversation ended.

Now, they’re probably thinking of burning everyone in that building and leaving. With awareness of the killer’s presence.

‘Is the distance… Okay…?’

As a result of using spiritual and physical trading this morning, almost all of the people killed in the main building were included in the sphere of influence. The scope of application of spiritual and physical transactions was quite wide.

‘Fuck.. Let’s try it..’

I decided to activate the Spirit-Body Transaction before the soldiers burned my body and rendered it useless. Soon an unpleasant contract appeared in front of me.

[25 spiritual and physical bodies of ordinary humans, 5 spiritual and physical bodies of extraordinary humans… Would you like to trade for 2 green reward boxes, 1 blue reward box and 3 stat points?]

It’s up!

Fortunately, it seems to be within the scope of application.

‘Let’s make a deal right away..!’

I immediately activated the spiritual and physical transaction, and immediately three reward boxes fell in front of me.

“Uh oh!! Sergeant!! The body is disappearing!!”

“What!? What the fuck do you mean!”

As soon as the spiritual and physical transaction was activated, the soldiers went into an uproar. It is surprising that the corpses suddenly turned into ash and dust and disappeared. Perhaps, since the corpse has been destroyed, memories can no longer be extracted from the corpse.

‘Ha.. But.. I guess I’ll have to kill him..?’

We have to kill young people in their early twenties who want to see their families. This is a different feeling from when I killed those guys from Dongyeong High School. I felt a little guilty and remorse.

Those criminal brats who kidnap people for their own lust without any regrets, be it family or anything else, could just kill hundreds of people without any emotional agitation, but… I felt depressed for a moment at the fact that they had to kill soldiers who were serving society.

‘Fuck.. Is there a way.. They say they’re chasing me.. I have to surprise them and kill them first… ‘

If I let them chase me like this, I and my people could die. When I think of soldiers with guns ambushing us, my stomach tingles.

Among the skills I have now, there is nothing that can block bullets. If you get shot, you die. If you hit the head, it’s an instant accident.

‘But how many of those guys are there… ‘

The number of soldiers caught by presence detection is approximately fourteen. It seems like not many people came around here, perhaps because most of it was cleared out the other day. I think about one squad came. Since there was a fire, they probably came to check what was going on and are doing additional work.

‘The problem is… The real problem is when they ambush and kill the soldiers… ‘

If they do not return, the alert level in this area will be greatly increased and the search will become more intense.

I’m going to search really thoroughly. There will definitely be people with trace observation or better detection skills.

If you kill a soldier and get caught, there is a possibility that you will disappear without a word in today’s times. Because now is a time when fists are closer than the law.

‘Killing this thing isn’t the best solution… What should I do… Should I just kill it without hesitation… Or should I just retreat like this… If I don’t kill it, there’s a high possibility that those guys will come after me… If I kill it, there’s a chance that even more guys will be searching this area. It’s very high… Ha.. Sigh.. Should I just go..?’

I am now at a crossroads of choice. If I didn’t choose the right option this time, there was a very high possibility that my future would become uncertain.

“Ugh..”

At that time, thoughts that were not mine saw into my head.

It seems like Saeyeon used thought transfer. She sent me a chunk of unrefined information. Rather than saying I wanted to do this, it just seemed like the skill effect worked this way.

‘This is how they are sent…’

I first checked the information she sent. If I were to ask for help now, I would leave the soldiers behind and go straight to where my sister and the rest of the group were.

‘Huh..?’

However, the information received through the accident report contained unexpected content.

‘Youngsik came back and met me near the apartment… What is it… The golden gate…? Temporary labyrinth..? What does this mean..?’

It is said that what Youngsik discovered was a ‘golden gate’. A gate that sparkles and shines in gold. It was said that the gate had no information at all, so I came down to inform them right away…

‘What is the temporary labyrinth?’

There were clearly only four types of gates written in the survivor’s journal.

There is a blue gate connected to the simple labyrinth, a green gate connected to the infinite labyrinth, a red gate from which vampires emerge, and a huge black gate from which unidentified monsters and foreign objects crawl out.

‘What about the golden gate… ‘

I have no idea.

It seems like Yeongsik hurried down as soon as he found out and found me. Perhaps they thought it was something unusual and he passed it on to me without touching it. Maybe it’s a type of gate that belongs like the green gate.

It is indeed the right decision. Should I say that it is also a spiritual food? Your faith in me is strong. I am just thankful.

‘It’s still morning.. I understand that the gate will disappear from the afternoon.. If my hypothesis is correct, I have to hurry now and take the gate myself..’

If you deal with the soldiers here, time will pass quickly. There are about ten of us, but they are all holding guns, so if a fight breaks out, I have to fight in a hit-and-run manner, which would waste a lot of time.

‘I’ve had enough of the reward box… I don’t know when the gate will disappear… ‘

Since I took the acute stimulant, my body’s fatigue has almost disappeared. I can move a little more.

‘Let’s go… ‘

I backed out of the alley and went back the way I came so as not to be noticed by the soldiers. Thanks to the perception-impairing ring, most zombies didn’t notice me even if I ran fast.

“Haa.. Haa.. Fuck..”

Following the compass, I quickly climbed to the 7th floor of a commercial building. The 7th floor had already been cleaned up by Yeongsik and Park Sunhwa, so all the zombies were dead.

“Fuck… This is the golden gate…”

[A crack in construction was found.]

[It is a ‘temporary labyrinth.’]

There was a brightly shining gate at the entrance to the men’s restroom on the 7th floor. This must be the gate that Yeongsik found.

“What the hell…”

It’s a temporary labyrinth. Where did this lead?

I reached out to the gate, feeling curious.

[Labyrinth type: TBD]

[Difficulty: TBD]

[Labyrinth name: TBD]

[Access conditions: TBD]

[Imposition target: TBC]

[Goal achievement reward: TBC]

[Capacity: TBC]

[Create the labyrinth you want.]

“Huh…Fuck…”

I think I discovered a bigger labyrinth than I thought. It’s a labyrinth that I can make to my taste..

Tonight… I’ll have to feed some beef to Yeongsik, who made a valuable discovery.