Chapter 49 |
Survivor II
"Vice guild leader, could you come see me for a moment?"
I first became aware of Baekwha Girls' High during my fifth cycle, back when I was still living as Dang Seo-rin's right hand in Samcheon.
"Yes, guild leader. What's the matter?"
"Nothing major, just some new information. Have you ever heard of Baekwha Girls' High?"
A black cat, a witch's essential item as per Dang Seo-rin, was rubbing against my legs at that time.
"No, I haven't heard of it."
"A year, you say. Then there must be no survivors."
As always, I made judgments based on sound reasoning and healthy intellect.
Dang Seo-rin's voice lowered.
"That's... not entirely true."
"Really?"
"It's not precise, but apparently, about 20 people survived."
I widened my eyes.
"Twenty? Are you sure?"
"Yes... I'd like to assert confidently, but I don't know for sure. It's still just rumors at this point. The information I have is 'the Gate was closed for a year,' 'there are about 20 survivors,' 'all those trapped were high school students.'"
"Even high school students."
I was astounded.
As I've said, even as a regressor, I needed three cycles to clear Busan Station, and even then, I was the only survivor.
Both Dang Seo-rin and I could agree that the survival rate at Baekwha Girls' High was astonishing.
"Guild leader. If that’s true..."
"Yes. It means among the survivors there might be an extraordinary talent, a once-in-a-generation Awakener."
Dang Seo-rin reached out and stroked the black cat, which shivered.
"That’s why I'd like you, vice guild leader, to go there yourself and investigate. Check if the rumors are true, and if they are, see if there really is such an Awakener, and if there is—"
"We should recruit them into our guild."
"Exactly."
"Understood. I'll make sure to scout them before other guilds start sniffing around."
"Good. Oh, and one more thing."
Dang Seo-rin added offhandedly.
"If their character is seriously flawed, we don't necessarily have to recruit them."
Looking back, our Witch might have had the gift of prophecy.
Really, it was something one could have predicted.
Even healthy adults, once they've been trapped in a Void, often turn loopy. What then of high school students, at the peak of their emotional years, experiencing a long-term real-life horror game?
As soon as I arrived at the 'Guild Headquarters' of Baekwha Girls' High, I began to sense the answer.
"...Is this supposed to be a guild building?"
Crows cawed.
Like the Saintess who lived in an aquarium temple and Dang Seo-rin who stayed on a train, Awakeners with unique mental worlds always had distinctively designed homes. Baekwha Girls' High was no different.
Baekwha Girls' High was, quite literally, using an actual school building as its guild lair.
(Congratu) Seo.,; University 2 Admitted! (lations)
The banner hung on the school gate was tattered.
The character for 'Seoul' in 'Seoul National University' was completely worn through, although it could have been Seokang or Seokyeong University, so it couldn't be confirmed without observation.
The sports field looked as if it had been bombarded by meteors, deeply pocked here and there. The net of the football goal was so tangled that even Alexander the Great would shake his head in dismay.
The highlight was the dormitory and school buildings, where the walls had crumbled down, exposing the bare steel framework.
'Isn't this just an abandoned school?'
I wasn't the protagonist of a horror game. Therefore, I hesitated, unsure whether I should really enter.
"Hello. What brings you here?"
"Ah, well...?"
As I stood awkwardly at the gate, the guards approached.
And, well... the guards looked quite unique.
Frankly, their heads were smashed in.
"......"
In other words, zombies.
The guard was exposing his skull to the world, yet his demeanor towards me was very polite. If he had been wearing a motorcycle helmet, I wouldn't have known he was a zombie.
"I'm sorry, but if you don't have business here, please leave. This is a private school. Outsiders cannot enter casually."
"Uh, um."
Even as a seasoned regressor, I found it hard to know what to say in this situation.
Were they not monsters? Should I attack them on sight?
"...I'm here from the Samcheon World Guild."
"Samcheon World? Guild?"
The zombie guard tilted his head.
"Where is that?"
"Um... it's the most prominent guild in Busan, actually."
Wait, why am I explaining things to a monster?
Suddenly gaining insight, I composed myself.
"I’m here to see someone in charge. Is she available?"
"Ah, the Guild President's guest, I see."
Guild President?
"She's in class right now, so she can't come out immediately."
"Class?"
"Yes. It's a school here. Naturally, the students are in class at this time."
"......"
At that point, I had an inkling.
A very, very familiar sense of foreboding.
It was similar to the unease that had crept over my entire body when I joined Samcheon after Dang Seo-rin’s recruitment proposal, only to find out, 'Oh, by the way, anyone who joins our guild must wear a witch hat regardless of the place.'
Over my many cycles as a regressor, I had developed a sixth sense.
The so-called 'twist sense,' a sensory organ exclusive to regressors.
Whenever a certain level of quirkiness was detected, a tingling sensation would shoot up from the coccyx to the cervical spine. Particularly now, the warning bells were ringing in the fourth cervical vertebra, whereas when I met Dang Seo-rin, it had only reached the sixth thoracic vertebra, indicating a seriously unusual level of quirkiness.
'Should I run?'
If I had been just a bit more experienced, I would have definitely retreated following my body's alarm.
But in my fifth cycle, I was foolishly upright, clinging to a pointless justification that I couldn't just abandon a mission entrusted with full authority by Dang Seo-rin.
"...I see. How long should I wait for the class to end?"
"Hmm."
The guard turned to look at a clock.
It was a giant clock installed on the school’s outer wall, fitting seamlessly into the surroundings in design, which meant the clock hands were broken and it wasn’t working at all.
Yet, like me with a sixth sense, the zombie guard seemed to effortlessly tell the time from the broken clock.
"Just about 15 minutes until break time. It’s a bit awkward to keep a guest waiting... Would you like to come in and wait?"
"I'll just stay here."
I responded immediately. I didn’t want to step beyond this gate if I could avoid it. Although I didn’t flee outright, I did take my spinal reaction into account to some extent.
The guard shrugged.
"Sure? Well, suit yourself."
It didn’t take long for my judgment to prove very correct.
"Ding-dong-dang-dong."
"…?"
I looked at the guard.
Note that I just described the sound effect in quotation marks (""). This 'ding-dong-dang-dong' was not a bell sound. It wasn’t a chime from a speaker or a bell tower.
The guard, a zombie with a shattered skull, was making the sound with his mouth and throat.
"Ding-dong-dang-dong."
"……"
At that sight, my third cervical vertebra buzzed.
Just as mice scurry about before an earthquake, my cervical spine’s premonition was not wrong. From the school building, more accurately the abandoned school building, zombies swarmed out.
"Ding-dong-dang-dong."
"Ding-dong-dang-dong."
The zombies, all in uniforms, specifically, Baekwha Girls’ High uniforms, were moving their lips and chanting 'ding-dong-dang-dong.'
"……"
I shuddered.
'Run.'
But it was too late.
"Did you say you were looking for me?"
Among the hundreds of zombies, a perfectly alive human walked out, dressed in the same white uniform as the zombies.
Her hair styled in a ponytail, dyed orange.
Such a hair color would surely stand out in a traditional private school, perhaps even garnering some kind of support among the students, as if a student had been called out of class because a guest had arrived.
"Who are you?"
That was Cheon Yo-hwa.
"...Hello. I am the vice guild leader of the Samcheon World Guild from Busan."
"Huh? Guild? Vice guild leader?"
Cheon Yo-hwa tilted her head, a reaction that could be seen as quite cute in isolation.
The problem was in her eyes.
Cheon Yo-hwa's eyes lacked focus. It was as if her irises and pupils were indistinguishable, her eyes appearing like wells steeped in dark shadows.
"What's that? I've never heard of it."
"Uh... I see. Well, a guild is a group of Awakeners."
"Awakeners?"
"...Awakeners, you know, are people with special abilities."
Cheon Yo-hwa blinked.
In response, my third cervical vertebra also blinked, quite ferociously.
"Special abilities? What's that? Are you some kind of otaku?"
"No, I... Excuse me, but may I ask your name?"
"Ah, it's Cheon Yo-hwa."
At this, she bowed politely again.
And I somewhat relaxed at this 'normal-seeming response.' Inevitably, I've always had a soft spot for polite people. It was the same with Go Yuri.
From there, a parade of verbal slip-ups erupted from me. At the time, I was blissfully unaware of them.
"I am the student council president here."
"Um, haven't you awakened any abilities, Ms. Cheon Yo-hwa? I’m not sure what they are, but the abilities of people here, like that guard or the zombies roaming the sports field, are affiliated with this place—"
"Zombies?"
Fatal slip-up number 1.
"Yes, your ability is very powerful. Whether you’ve turned the [dead] into zombies or even the living into zombies, I’m not sure."
"...Dead bodies?"
Fatal slip-up number 2.
"With your abilities and those of the guild members here, you could secure a much better environment than this. In Samcheon World, we don’t make empty promises. You wouldn’t have to struggle in this crumbling, wall-less [abandoned school]."
"......"
Fatal slip-up number 3.
"Of course, I’m not suggesting we do anything about it right now. Just sparing some time to schedule an appointment, we could arrange a proper visit from our side—"
"Please leave."
"Excuse me?"
"Leave our school now."
Only then did I realize the silence around us.
The guard who had reacted like a living person, the zombies that had gathered on the sports field, the real students mingled among them, and Cheon Yo-hwa herself in front of me.
All were staring blankly at me.
"......"
"No, don’t leave."
Cheon Yo-hwa grabbed my wrist.
"We were actually short on guards. Yes, this is perfect. Sir, would you like to [work] at our school? As a guard. Yes, that would be nice."
"......"
"Or you could [transfer] here. The basketball team juniors were just complaining about the low number of new students."
My second cervical vertebra jolted with a disk-like sensation.
Even I, in my fifth cycle, naive as I was, could recognize that this was a dire situation. I promptly shook off Cheon Yo-hwa's grip and fled without hesitation.
I fully expected the 'enemies' to chase after me. It was a rational judgment and thus a mistaken one.
The entities affiliated with Baekwha Girls’ High did not pursue me.
Looking back, they hadn’t moved a step beyond the school gate.
"......"
The fence that separated the school from the outside was partially broken down, but the zombies, as if facing an invisible wall, never crossed the boundary of the school.
Just behind the gate, just beyond the fence, hundreds of gazes clung to the wall like cicadas, staring blankly in my direction.
"Ding-dong-dang-dong."
"Ding-dong-dang-dong."
"Ding-dong-dang-dong."
The sound of bells echoed across the schoolyard. The zombies turned back.
"Ah, break time is over."
Cheon Yo-hwa muttered expressionlessly and shuffled toward the school entrance with the zombies, a mix of actual humans and zombies, though honestly, it was hard to tell the difference.
They seemed not so much individual entities as a collective organism.
The sports field quickly returned to silence.
Listening closely, I could hear voices leaking from the school building in the distance. English. In another classroom, the sound of a math lesson could be heard.
Astonishingly, the members of Baekwha Girls' High, including the zombies, were 'attending classes' inside the school building.
"...This is insane."
That was my first encounter with Cheon Yo-hwa.
First contact with aliens, failed.
"These kids are insane."
Dang Seo-rin, having received my report, reached the same conclusion.
"Sometimes you get such crazies. How about it, vice guild leader? Any chance they might harm civilians? If so, we might need to intervene."
"I can't be certain yet, but it seems we needn’t worry about civilian casualties. They seem to be nesting in the abandoned school and don’t venture out."
"Hmm, is that so?"
Dang Seo-rin made a perfectly rational decision based on my advice.
"Then let's not bother them unless absolutely necessary. No need to stir up a hornet's nest."
"That's a wise decision."
"Yes. I'm always wise."
"The conical hat."
"The perfect ornament to crown my profound wisdom."
Samcheon World cleanly washed their hands of the matter.
But the world wasn't made up only of rational humans.
Human quirkiness was like the king of fruits, durian.
No matter how tightly you seal it in a box, it asserts its overwhelming presence to everyone around.
Not long after I had been thoroughly chastened and returned, Awakeners across the Korean Peninsula began to take notice of Baekwha Girls' High.
"A Necromancer? A magic-user Awakener?"
"Even controlling hundreds of corpses at will?"
"That's an absolute superstar newbie."
"Recruit them! Whatever it takes, whatever the conditions, bring them over!"
In the era of humanpunk, where all resources are replaced by human assets, even if other resources failed, corpses were abundantly available, making the profession of a Necromancer inherently attractive.
Of course, I knew that this overflowing charm was akin to Pandora's Box. That is, as soon as you open it, expect Santa Claus to deliver disasters worldwide.
"Ladies and gentlemen, that place is as good as a den of the Void. I strongly recommend against entering."
"Is Samcheon afraid of our guild's progress?"
"Let them be. They failed to recruit, so they're just throwing shade at us. Ignore it, ignore."
Foolishly, the guild leaders disregarded my friendly advice.
Blinded by the emergence of a top-tier talent, they lost their senses.
"Wow! Not some fake virus but a real Necromancer controlling a legion of zombies!"
"Move... everyone move! With a dark mage, we might even break Dang Seo-rin's monopoly!"
With the biggest guild, Samcheon World, declaring they'd sit out this free agent season, other guild leaders rushed in like mad.
They carefully selected the most charismatic emissaries from their guilds and sent them off, furiously tapping the 'recruit' button.
The only difference between the other emissaries and me was the presence or absence of spinal nerves.
"Uh... why aren't these guys coming back from Baekwha Girls' High?"
"Same for you? Our guild members have gone completely silent."
No matter how long the guild leaders waited, their emissaries did not return.
Exhausted, those who visited Baekwha Girls' High in person witnessed a startling sight.
"Hey, why are you working here?"
"What? I'm just a regular guard."
"What?"
The talents dispatched by the guilds had all been employed, in reverse, at Baekwha Girls' High.
Even during their job interviews, some had holes drilled into their skulls, and the new guards seemed to have discharged their cerebrospinal fluid along with their memories of their former lives. They didn't even recognize their former guild leaders.
When you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes back into you. Sending new talents to recruit and instead losing existing talents is always a possibility. However, the guild leaders were too underdeveloped in character to accept such truths.
"What the fuck... No, this won't do. Destroy them!"
And those who seek to destroy others must always be prepared to be destroyed themselves.
The guilds that vowed revenge and charged into Baekwha Girls' High all succeeded in 'getting employed,' thus significantly reducing the unemployment rate on the Korean Peninsula during this job crisis.
"What the hell... What is that?"
"It turns out Undertaker was right!"
"They should never be messed with."
"Fuck, did you see what they eat in that school cafeteria? Human flesh! They’re sitting there eating people! Crazy fucks."
"Fuck, they weren’t unappetizing fruit; they were inedible zombies."
But by then, it was too late.
Pandora’s Box had been opened.
Baekwha Girls' High reached a temporary state of saturation. Suddenly having an influx of new guards made sense; even for a prestigious school boasting history and tradition, 136 guards felt a bit excessive.
The unplanned personnel increase inevitably burdened Baekwha Girls' High's financial operations.
If Cheon Yo-hwa had been a typical corporate CEO, she would have implemented the three great swords of business—'staff cuts,' 'mass layoffs,' 'restructuring.'
But Cheon Yo-hwa was anything but typical. She decided that now was the time to push an aggressive merger policy.
"Uh, uh?"
"Why are they increasing?"
Literally, the 'school' was expanding.
More precisely, the school's boundaries were gradually extending.
The building that had been in front of Baekwha Girls' High had become a 'tteokbokki shop' and a 'convenience store.' Not that they really sold tteokbokki there.
"Hello, boss. Please give me two servings of tteokbokki and three dumplings!"
A zombie student would say.
"Since our student is so pretty, I added an extra dumpling."
The zombie boss would reply.
No actual goods were exchanged. The zombie student handed over invisible money, and the zombie boss handed over invisible tteokbokki. And both were happily smiling.
At least that was relatively normal.
Sometimes, after handing over invisible money, they would receive 'human flesh tteokbokki.'
The snack bar in front of the school was always filled with the laughter of students. During lunch and after school, the shops thrived. This was truly creative economics.
"Hello! I'm Cheon Yo-hwa, the student council president of Baekwha Girls' High!"
"Eek...! Save me!"
"Ah, wait a moment. Our students are very interested in off-campus experiential learning lately! Aren’t you interested in working with our school?"
"I’m not interested! Go away!"
"Thank you!"
"......"
The guilds that had settled around Baekwha Girls' High were gradually subdued by the school’s educational fervor.
Within less than a year, the Korean Peninsula saw the birth of an unprecedented academy city.
Footnotes:
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