NOVPUBNecromancer-type monsters were, quite honestly, the easiest to deal with among the smaller types appearing these days.
As long as you got close, you could kill them.
They were already slow, but necromancers were particularly sluggish and easy to predict.
The problem was getting to them—breaking through the curtain of zombies that surrounded them.
There were three possible scenarios.
The first was the only winning strategy: breaking through a hundred or more escort zombies and killing the monster in an instant.
In all other cases, no matter what variables played out, we would lose.
The second scenario was successfully killing the necromancer, but not before it summoned the zombies from the city below.
Even if the monster died, we would have to face a wave of thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of zombies.
We had prepared a vehicle for that possibility, but it was obvious Ha Tae-hoon would have to risk his life driving through it.
The third case was complete failure.
Not killing the monster. Just getting swarmed by zombies.
If that happened, well—sorry, Cheon Young-jae, but we’re running.
With all this in mind, we held a brief meeting.
“Do we really have to do this?”
Ha Tae-hoon still grumbled.
Not giving Cheon Young-jae a communicator had been a wise choice.
Hearing this kind of whining would only strain their relationship.
Human relationships don’t always break apart because of big dramatic events.
Most of the time, it’s the small daily irritations that start the cracks.
“This was my decision, sunbae. Let’s grab a drink later. I’ve got something stashed away in my bunker’s secret vault.”
“Whiskey?!”
“How’d you know?”
“N-No reason. Anyway, got it. I’ll follow instructions.”
“...?”
Wait.
No way.
Did this bastard sneak into my stash?
I’d been away for a month, so it wasn’t impossible.
But that was a problem for later. For now, I needed to focus on the fight.
“Oh, I just overheard. You’ve decided to fight the monster?”
Park Penguin was still watching from the opposite ridgeline, standing ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) with his sons.
“We’ll observe and learn.”
He wasn’t the only spectator.
Even the villagers of the living dead had gathered to watch.
On the ridge, thin, hollow-eyed figures swayed as they watched us from above.
Among them was Yoon Sung-jae—standing with a woman behind him.
Even with just a faint silhouette, she was clearly a beauty.
But that wasn’t Cheon Young-jae’s woman.
Our Cheon Young-jae was completely focused on the battle.
“...Sunbae. I’ll peel off the zombies.”
“You’re going to sand them down?”
“Yeah.”
I could have told Cheon Young-jae that Song Moon-hee was watching.
But I didn’t.
There’s nothing more beautiful than a warrior fully immersed in battle.
That was one of the lines from Instructor Jang Ki-young’s teachings.
“Alright, let’s begin.”
The time was 5:23 PM.
The sun would set in an hour.
Cheon Young-jae raised his kukri and approached the swaying zombie horde.
He didn’t charge in right away.
Instead, he toyed with them.
Closing in, pulling back, testing their patience, luring the outermost zombies into noticing him.
Soon, three zombies lifted their heads, their eyes gleaming as they locked onto him.
As they slowly shuffled toward him, Cheon Young-jae backstepped with his signature loose movements, leading them away.
Once he had drawn them twenty meters out, he danced like a masked performer and slashed each of their throats.
If you only looked at the results, his technique was flawless.
Just ugly as hell.
With three zombies down, Cheon Young-jae wobbled back to the original site and repeated the process, pulling out more in small numbers.
This method—slowly reducing the zombie count without triggering a massive horde—was called “sanding”.
A classic tactic.
Still effective against necromancer-types.
But rarely used in real combat.
It required a specialist—someone skilled in luring zombies without panicking, someone who could kill silently with melee weapons.
And it took time.
One mistake, and all that effort was wasted.
That’s why most people didn’t bother.
If you had artillery, a necromancer-type was better off just being blown to hell.
Still, despite testing Cheon Young-jae’s weaknesses earlier, I continued watching him for one reason.
His skill.
Splatter! Slash!
Cheon Young-jae excelled at close combat, shooting, and fighting humans.
His melee technique, though, was a damn eyesore.
If Instructor Jang Ki-young saw it, he’d foam at the mouth. 𝒏𝒐𝒗𝒑𝒖𝒃.𝙘𝒐𝒎
“That’s not how you do it!”
Lately, I’d been thinking about my old instructor a lot.
Not out of nostalgia.
But because I’d heard rumors.
That somewhere in Incheon, he was still alive.
I was curious.
What kind of message would a half-dead instructor leave me?
Hopefully, not something as ridiculous as a rocket axe.
By the time Cheon Young-jae peeled away another layer of zombies, around thirty corpses littered the ground.
It was almost time.
I signaled him to stop and contacted Ha Tae-hoon, waiting below.
“If we fail, we’ll run your way. Hold your ground as long as you can. Only move if the zombies become overwhelming.”
I also sent a message to Bang Jae-hyuk.
“If the monster wakes up, cover us. And if possible, intimidate it.”
“Intimidate?”
“Can you do it?”
“Heh. I’ll try.”
“If you’re not confident, don’t.”
“No, I should show off a little. You guys traveled all this way for a cripple like me and my old hag of a mother. Just give the order, boss.”
“...Boss?”
What a ridiculous title.
“Don’t call me that.”
We were ready.
On both ridges, spectators watched us.
I spoke into the communicator.
“Let’s show them what our school taught us.”
Chuckles, scoffs, silence, halfhearted responses.
All of them reached me over the radio.
But even in their varied reactions, I could feel it.
The pride of those once broken.
Inside the school, we were trained to believe we were the best.
And we still believed it.
“Cover my flanks.”
“Sunbae, you’re handling it?”
“That’s the best choice.”
“Hm.”
“Watch. And learn.”
Cheon Young-jae and I sprinted forward toward the thin opening he had carved out.
The wind whipped past us, carrying the scent of the dead.
The zombies turned.
They had sensed us.
There was no known network between them.
But when enough necromancer-controlled zombies detected an enemy, that information was relayed to the necromancer itself.
“Grrraaagh!”
“Krrrrghhh!”
As the zombies bared their hostility—
Boom!
A shockwave, like a harbinger of the end of the world, roared through the darkening sky.
“We’re going in.”
Srrrng—
I drew both my axes.
And charged.
“Whoa—!”
Cheon Young-jae immediately fell behind.
A staircase—half a collapsed motel.
Beyond it, a monster loomed behind a bombed-out wall.
I leapt up the stairs.
Boom!
The monster turned its massive, triangular head toward me.
I was already airborne.
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
As I closed in on the grayish-white abomination, I thought to myself—
I am thunder.
Crack!
Both axes buried themselves in its skull.
With a kick, I yanked them free, striking again mid-fall before landing.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The monster unleashed a shockwave.
A strange current filled the air.
Red lines, like a spiderweb, spread in every direction.
Ignition.
A Level 4 Awakened’s ability.
The red threads erupted in a blinding white flash.
“Sunbae!”
The zombies surged.
The monster turned its battered head toward the village.
It was calling its horde.
“Cheon Young-jae! Hold the flanks!”
Then—
“Bang Jae-hyuk.”
“I’m here.”
“Can you intimidate it?”
“Locking target. Initiating now. Three. Two. One.”
Bang!
A gunshot rang from afar.
And then—
Boom!
A reflection field expanded beyond the monster.
It would likely deflect bullets that were invisible to the eye.
Monsters couldn’t use multiple abilities at once.
Hoping Bang Jae-hyuk was safe, I sprinted forward at full speed.
Sure enough, the monster didn’t react.
It could no longer summon that white, flaming net to drive me away.
Now, it was defenseless.
Crack!
I struck its leg.
Like chopping down a tree.
The monster swayed, but it didn’t collapse.
Crack!
What if I hit it again?
The beast staggered, its torso and head dipping toward the ground.
I climbed onto its back and hacked away at its grotesque weak point—its skull.
Boom!
It convulsed, releasing a shockwave that reverberated through my body.
But I didn’t stop.
Crack!
With a final blow, its head severed from its neck.
And then—
Sssssssssss—
The monster's body disintegrated into golden dust.
"Nice kill."
I pulled out my rifle, firing at the swarming zombies, and spoke into the communicator.
"Status on the village?"
Ha Tae-hoon responded.
"All clear."
"Bang Jae-hyuk?"
"Also clear."
Bang Jae-hyuk’s cheerful voice followed.
Good.
I felt a deep satisfaction rising within me as I raised my gun toward the approaching undead.
Bang! Tatatatang!
Shooting down zombies, I backed away with Cheon Young-jae, withdrawing from the battlefield.
"Thanks, sunbae."
Cheon Young-jae, walking beside me, spoke with genuine gratitude.
"Really, thank you. I forced this on you... I don’t even know how I can repay you..."
"You don’t have to thank me."
I meant it.
For the first time in a while, I felt my hatred fulfilled.
It had always been the same.
The greatest reward for me wasn’t money, wasn’t recognition, wasn’t love.
It was watching a monster disintegrate into particles.
The satisfaction of my hatred burning anew.
Maybe this was my only true happiness.
Or... no.
There was one more thing.
Something that had become inseparable from me.
But that could wait.
For now, I simply watched the dying embers before me.
They were beautiful.
"Impressive. You're Park Gyu, right?"
The voice over the communicator belonged to Park Penguin, the rising power of the Incheon-Bucheon district.
"Do you have a personal identification number? If you don’t mind, I’d like to stay in touch."
"Go ahead."
Beside me, Cheon Young-jae covered the mic and muttered in a low voice.
"He’s a good guy."
I exchanged ID numbers with Park Penguin.
"Hmm? Skelton...?"
"Huh? Is there a problem?"
"No, nothing. Skelton. Got it. I’ll be in touch."
With the monster gone, the route between Herb Village and Shelter 73 was now open.
Of course, the zombie-infested city was still a problem, but with the necromancer-type eliminated, the level of danger was completely different.
That was Park Penguin’s and the villagers’ problem now.
Naturally, we returned to Herb Village.
Yoon Sung-jae and the others were waiting for us.
"Wow!"
"You guys are insane!"
Even these dead-eyed people praised us.
"Truly, thank you."
Yoon Sung-jae stepped forward and gave us a deep bow.
After thanking me, he turned to Cheon Young-jae.
The two men stood facing each other, a noticeable height difference between them.
A tense air settled around them.
"I am truly sorry."
Yoon Sung-jae bowed at a full 90 degrees.
"Truly! I mean it!"
I glanced at Cheon Young-jae’s face.
He watched Yoon Sung-jae’s lowered head with a bitter expression.
Then, without interest, he turned away.
I spoke in his place.
"We won’t be coming back here."
"I see."
"But."
"Yes?"
"Are you good at beatboxing?"
"...What?"
It was a serious question.
But Cheon Young-jae called from behind me.
"What the hell, beatboxing? Let’s just go."
This strange, eerie village—its story ended here.
Or at least, it should have.
"Y-Young-jae oppa?"
A woman’s voice.
I turned my head.
The war had been over for a long time, but she was still beautiful.
Still young.
Someone might even say she had a radiant presence.
She stared at Cheon Young-jae.
His eyes widened as he looked at her.
"...Moon-hee."
At that moment, my concern skyrocketed.
What should have been completely resolved now felt in danger of unraveling.
Because that woman—
Her face was fine, but her body shook uncontrollably.
A tweaker.
A heavy drug addict—the kind that constantly twitches with muscle spasms.
But her current state wasn’t even the most horrifying part.
The real tragedy was in her eyes.
She smiled radiantly, seeing her old lover.
She believed she was still the same person she had been back then.
Her clear, unwavering gaze proved it.
But to us, to normal people—
Her convulsions were plain as day.
She thought she was still normal.
But to us, she was undeniably warped.
The final choice was now Cheon Young-jae’s.
He opened his mouth.
"Oh. Moon-hee. It's been a while."
He gave a slight bow.
And then—
"See you around."
He turned away.
He would never see that woman again.
As if to confirm my thoughts, Cheon Young-jae flashed me a wry smile.
"That good whiskey, it’s still there, right?"
"Probably."
Before leaving, I glanced at Song Moon-hee.
She was laughing brightly, clinging to Yoon Sung-jae’s arm.
Her face twitched constantly, her body jerking with spasms.
But to her, she was the happiest she had ever been.
