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Jae-Hyun studied the corpse.
The noble had a terrified look on his face even in death, and his eyes were wide open.
It seemed whatever killed him was quite scary.
It looked like he had seen a ghost.
But ghosts weren't real.
So what else could have made him so terrified?
His eyes trailed to the blood trail — a wide red line from what could easily be guessed as the original position of the body to its present position.
A busty beauty in a lab coat walked forward to join him.
Jae-Hyun watched as his companion, Choi Sena, began to examine the body.
Her movements were more graceful than his rough glance, but that was to be expected from the woman who was said to have dominated the world as the crazy doctor.
Well, that was what the future Jae-Hyun — the one who had come back — told him.
But now she was someone who was under him and owed him her life.
He had gone through a lot of trouble to save her from that hospital before she had to do something drastic to escape — something that would have led to a life of self-hatred against humanity and the slaughter of a large number of humans.
She was also the reason he was finally able to accept that he had gone back in time… and acquired a system that seemed hell-bent on destroying all zombies and saving as many people as possible.
Something that magical didn't feel like it would choose him, but here he was, talking to a beauty who was normally beyond his reach.
"He was attacked and had his head broken by slamming it into the ground repeatedly," her voice was cool and calm.
"Is there anything odd that you have noticed?" he asked her.
"The degree of trauma to the head was caused by a large amount of force."
"A force that only a zombie could pull off," she said while removing her gloves and tossing them on the ground.
Jae-Hyun frowned at this.
He, more than others, was very much aware of the balance between superhumans and zombies.
Superhumans had a wide range of mental abilities, but their physical abilities remained the same.
Zombies, meanwhile, had low intelligence — more animal instinct than human brain — but displayed abnormal strength, like punching a building so hard it could create a shockwave and collapse it.
But that was in the later years of the apocalypse.
At the time, he was amputated in one arm and leg, scurrying around like a rat trying to survive because he was just an ordinary human.
Those unpleasant memories began to resurface, and his face turned gloomy.
"It's not your fault," Choi Sena, noticing his mood, tried to comfort him.
She had noticed that this man seemed to care about the survival of the human race… even though she felt it wasn't really a necessity and that personal survival was the most important.
"Is the cool beauty comforting me?" Jae-Hyun snapped out of it and faced Choi Sena.
"Then I guess my persuasion in the bedroom worked pretty well," Jae-Hyun teased her.
Choi Sena rolled her eyes in annoyance, but that didn't stop the blush that dyed her cheeks.
"Young people nowadays are so rigorous," the voice belonged to the director who had just arrived.
He saw the beauty blushing and whistled before making that comment.
Choi Sena glared at him but eventually gave up.
She felt there was no need to argue with a madman — especially one who was also a fanatic to a non-existent cult.
"That's really so sad that his watch is missing," the director said, studying the corpse with interest.
Jae-Hyun turned to the noble and realized the director was right.
His watch was nowhere in sight.
Jae-Hyun didn't think the culprit would be dumb enough to steal the watch since it would be solid evidence… but the culprit must have been too greedy.
Then the cause of the murder was easy to determine at first glance — unless it was a trap.
Jae-Hyun didn't feel like things would be so simple.
And that was because this base was completely destroyed in his past life.
No one knew why or how, but overnight it became devoid of life, and only corpses could be seen lying about.
It was also the beginning of the massive number of deaths in various bases — each more mysterious than the last.
Honestly, the first suspect was definitely the director.
After all, nothing good came out of a crazy person.
"So what are you going to do about it?" Jae-Hyun asked the director.
His gaze was sharp on him as he studied him from head to toe.
"Nothing. After all, as a preacher of fairness, I can't interfere in disputes between people," the director said.
"What if I want to interfere?" Jae-Hyun asked.
"As an enforcer of fairness, I won't stop you. And if you need help, I can personally provide you with it," the director said humbly.
"Good. Then I need to talk to you in your office," Jae-Hyun said.
The director made a "please" gesture and turned away to walk out.
At this time, a crowd had formed to watch the show.
"Right, there's one last thing to say before I leave," the director said, slapping his head.
"If anyone is wondering where the points in the watch that was stolen went — it went to the person who now has it.
Okay, bye guys," the director said before waving his hand and leaving.
Jae-Hyun frowned and walked behind him.
The crowd dispersed.
The five had to force themselves to go back to work, but there was a lingering fear that began to creep in.
The idea of escaping started to feel like a great option at that point… but they still continued to stay in the base.
Just for the reason that the outside meant zombies — which was still scarier to them.
But now they couldn't allow Noi Karn to stay alone beside the dead body, so he agreed to follow Ming Jun to work at inventory.
Shae Harris was glad she wasn't on duty to clean the classroom because she realized it was probably the cleaning team that had to get rid of the corpse.
Damn director, she cursed, feeling a bit better after.
Yi Zheng was the only one worried about the corpse because he hadn't heard any screams in the night.
That would mean that either the culprit broke his windpipe so he couldn't speak… or killed him somewhere else and dragged the body to place it beside them.
Why?
To frame them.
But they hadn't offended any commoner here.
And the kids didn't have any friends in school, so they probably didn't have any enemies.
Somehow, he felt like the corpse wasn't a sign to him… but a sign to the five teenagers.
He decided to keep his eye open for any strange incident.
Somehow, he knew that the handsome young man who examined the corpse was somewhat reliable.
So he opted to look for an escape route.
Contrary to the group that was planning to run away, Jae-Hyun followed the director to his office in the teaching staff building.
Each floor in the building had a teacher's lounge and desks according to a specific department.
There were five floors, and the last floor was the principal's floor — that was also where the director's office resided.
"So what can I do to help you?" the director said, sitting down.
The assistant came in and dropped a cup of coffee for the both of them.
Jae-Hyun's companions were scattered across the base looking for clues.
He was part of the hunting team, which got paid per zombie killed.
As the one with the most kills — thanks to the system buffs — he was currently very rich.
So he lived in the dormitory with the biggest room along with his companions.
"You're quite the formidable hunter, so I don't see how I could help you," the director said, sipping his coffee.
"The surveillance footage from last night," Jae-Hyun asked.
"Of course." The director didn't ask any more questions and operated the laptop that was always on his desk.
He turned it to Jae-Hyun, who watched with focus.
He soon found the truth.
The noble had come to bully a woman who was asleep in the classroom.
Suddenly, the person beside her couldn't take it anymore and tried to beat up the noble.
He dragged him away from the woman and came in between them.
It seemed the man and woman knew each other because she fled straight into his arms, sobbing.
The noble tried to beat him up too, but he suddenly pounced on him and beat the noble to death.
His arms bulged with black veins, and his eyes were bloodshot as he slammed the head of the noble repeatedly onto the floor, leaving a huge dent.
He then dragged the body across the floor and walked in the direction of the window.
The woman became frightened at his appearance and ran away.
The man came back to his senses, then gritted his teeth and took off the watch that was on the noble's wrist.
He tried to use it, then made a surprised face.
He placed the watch in his pocket and also left in the direction of the fleeing woman because he saw the sun coming up.
Jae-Hyun memorized the man's features.
"If I catch him and hand him over to you, then what would happen to him?" Jae-Hyun asked.
"Well, I would do nothing to him… or I might even help him if he has enough points to buy my help," the director said.
"Is the head of the base meant to collect bribes?" Jae-Hyun asked, one eyebrow raised.
"It's called business, not bribery, because both parties obtained something from the transaction," the director corrected seriously.
Jae-Hyun: so it's corruption.
"But I didn't have to pay you for your help," Jae-Hyun said.
"Naturally. It's because I have a very deep interest in you," the director said, his eyes shining.
In fact, he stretched out his hands to grab Jae-Hyun — but the latter dodged and glared at him.
Jae-Hyun began to doubt if his points in charm were a bit too lethal.
"I need the ID number for the watch of both the culprit and the noble," Jae-Hyun said.
"Of course, and this time it's free of charge too," the director said, winking.
He ignored the director and stood up to leave.
Anyway, he had a murderer to catch.
He made a call to another one of his companions.
Park Haeun.
"Find someone for me," he said into the earpiece he wore.
"Brother already wants to replace me? Am I not enough?" the sultry voice said, ending with a giggle.
"I'll give you the ID number now," then Jae-Hyun proceeded to say the number given by the director.
"I've sent you the location," the woman's voice responded.
"Thank you. I'll make sure you remember who is dependent on whom tonight," Jae-Hyun ended the call.
He received the information with trust in her abilities.
She was, after all, a leading member of Ming Technology and called the tech queen — also known as the tech-crazy woman who would take command of a bunch of random household tech and blow them up as bombs in strategic places.
She was also a future menace to the human community… but now she was a reliable, playful teammate.
He headed straight for the location and found the culprit hiding.
He was in the trash area, and Jae-Hyun had to drag him out.
He kicked the man to the ground and glared at him.
"Let me go!" the man struggled on the ground.
"He was the one who wanted to harass my friend first," the man continued to say.
"I don't care about your reason for doing it, but I care about how you did it," Jae-Hyun said.
It was true — he thought the noble was a piece of trash too.
After all, the man was just a commoner.
"I… I don't know," the man stopped struggling and said.
"It was a voice that kept telling me to slaughter and kill," the man said, afraid.
"Can you hear that voice right now?" Jae-Hyun asked.
"Yes. I can hear it telling me to tear you apart and peel off your skin slowly… and then dip your flesh into boiling— hehe…" the man's state became even more crazed as he began to dive into the chaotic whispers.
Jae-Hyun frowned, looking at the black veins growing on his body and his eyes turning bloodshot.
He had enough and tried to wake the man up by slapping him around and calling his name.
He even tried calling the name of the girl he saved after getting the information from Park Haeun.
Eventually, Jae-Hyun had no other option but to use a gun from the system to blow his brain out as the black corpse spot on his body almost covered the entire thing.
[ Side quest completed ]
[ Hidden quest – kill all the chaotic humans in the base ]
[ Reward received upon completion ]
Jae-Hyun looked at the system in deep thought.
That should mean there were a considerable number of these kinds of people that could transform into a crazed zombie state.
...
The director was humming as he placed an X mark on a picture on his computer.
He turned to water the plant in his office.
The light reflected off the screen of his laptop — the same screen that had a huge red X mark on the man who was just killed by Jae-Hyun.
And beside his
picture were a few more pictures of random people.
.....
At the same time, Wei Zhi, Mori Aoi, Ming Jun, Shae Harris, and Noi Karn…
The five of them paused their work as if feeling something.
They couldn't describe it but it was like an intuition of some sort
Then they frowned at the same time, their eyes looking in one direction.
The garbage dump.