Chapter 196
The black creature was hunting me down, its eyes locked onto the back of my head.
I exchanged looks with Kim Hyeong-Jun, then crouched and turned to the left. Kim Hyeong-Jun didn’t miss his chance and kicked the black creature in the face. It seemed like the black creature’s eyes were fully on me, but when it noticed Kim Hyeong-Jun’s shin flying its way, it quickly leaned backward.
Its movements were almost divine. The flexibility, sense of balance, situational awareness, and instantaneous reaction speed it possessed were close to neither human nor zombie. It seemed even more focused than earlier after getting hit in the face.
The moment it leaned back, I took a series of quick, small steps, going around and trying to land a blow on its forehead. Its eyes suddenly flicked to the left, and it lay flat on the ground to avoid my punch. With a twist of its waist and lower body, it aimed a kick at Kim Hyeong-Jun’s left leg, which was supporting all of his weight.
Kim Hyeong-Jun lost his balance and fell backward, but he quickly rolled across the ground and used his hands to regain his balance.
I could feel the murderous intent through its eyes. The black creature took its time as it considered both me and Kim Hyeong-Jun. It didn’t move hastily; it was thinking about what to do next.
KWAAA…
A red dot appeared within its black eyeballs. It fixed its eyes on Kim Hyeong-Jun as it let out a throat-rending cry.
The black creature, which had been fully focused on me, was now conscious of Kim Hyeong-Jun as well. It no longer considered me or Kim Hyeong-Jun as easy targets.
I could tell that the creature was surprised, since we were superior in terms of strength, speed, and basically in every aspect when compared to the enemy leaders it had faced so far. However, it showed no sign of being afraid, as if it knew that it was physically superior to us. Rather, it seemed as though it was contemplating the best way to hunt us down.
I wet my parched lips as steam rose from my body. Steam was rising from Kim Hyeong-Jun as well, and he gestured with his head. He was signaling to me not to fight but to lead the creature to where the trap was since we were almost there.
At his signal, I channeled strength into my lower body and rushed toward the black creature. Its eyes widened, and it raised its right foot.
‘Is it aiming for my left side? My right side? Or my head?’
Its stance made it possible for it to attack and defend itself at the same time, but that was something that would only work against ordinary humans. Besides, I had other things in mind.
Bang!
I launched myself off the ground and leaped over it, only to keep on running after landing. The black creature followed my movements, but its face contorted into a frown when it saw Kim Hyeong-Jun already far, far away. It seemed as though it had believed that we were seriously going to go head-to-head with it.
KWAAAAAA!!!
I wondered if it realized that it had been tricked. The black creature let out a ferocious roar and rushed toward me like a raging wave.
When we finally reached the place where we had dug our trap, Kim Hyeong-Jun grabbed the rope that was on the ground and ran even harder. I felt the murderous intent intensify, and I turned around to see where the black creature was. Its jaws were wide open, and it was aiming for my neck.
“Ahjussi, now!”
At his signal, I jumped onto the roof of the building right next to me. When I pulled the rope that had been installed on the roof, the temporary wooden plank that we’d put up fell down, and gasoline began pouring out. The black creature stared up at the sky. When it saw the gasoline come pouring down over his head, it quickly folded its body into a crouch.
Crack, crack–
The ground beneath it broke apart, and it sank into the ground in an instant. The rope that Kim Hyeong-Jun was pulling triggered the wooden plank under the creature to break apart; we had covered the wooden plank with soil in order to fool it.
The black creature sank six meters into the ground, as more gasoline poured over it. Do Han-Sol, who had been waiting, grabbed the torch he had prepared and threw it into the pit where the black creature was.
Kim Hyeong-Jun and I grabbed long iron rebars used in construction sites and stabbed them as deeply into the creature as we could to keep it from climbing up the hole. The black creature could have easily snapped the rebars if they were the only things it had to deal with, but at that moment, it was losing its mind as its entire body was on fire.
KWAAAAAA!!!
The black creature wailed as flames engulfed it. Kim Hyeong-Jun and I stabbed at it, forcing it back down into the hole every time it tried to climb its way out, and whenever it tried to crouch down to jump, its melting skin prevented its muscles from moving in the proper way.
Do Han-Sol grabbed a length of rebar that was on the ground to stab the black creature.
“This is easier than I thought,” he said.
“Don’t let your guard down. There’s no way it's going to die like this.”
The black creature squirmed about like a cat thrown into a body of water. The unrelenting fire made its skin melt and regenerate continuously, and with time, it eventually slowed down. Soon, it stopped moving, and its skin no longer regenerated. Kim Hyeong-Jun frowned at me after noticing the change in the black creature.
“Ahjussi, it’s not regenerating anymore,” he said.
"There’s no way.”
“So attacking it with chemicals was the way, huh?”
“There’s no way it’s already done. This has to be something else.”
Since it had the ability to learn from its battles, I was sure that it was thinking of something. At that moment, just when I thought it was going to fall over helplessly, it submerged itself in the gasoline totally and disappeared from my sight. The flames made it impossible to see where the black creature was.
Soon, though, I noticed that the amount of gasoline in the hole was slowly decreasing.
'Oh shit, this can’t be…!’’
My eyes went wide, and I started poking the rebar into the pit randomly. Kim Hyeong-Jun copied me as well, perhaps sensing that he had underestimated the black creature. However, Do Han-Sol didn’t understand what was going on and turned to me with a puzzled face.
“What’s happening?” he asked. “Why is the gasoline disappearing? I thought we'd waterproofed the hole and had prepared it thoroughly.”
“Just keep stabbing!” I yelled at him.
Do Han-Sol nodded continuously and started to stab at the hole, just like the two of us were doing. No matter how many times I stabbed the rebar toward the flames, though, I only felt as though I was hitting the ground. It did not feel like I was making any contact with the black creature, as I had been earlier. Then, unexpectedly, my rebar sank deep into the ground. I let go of the rebar in an instant in order to keep my balance. I had almost fallen into the pit of fire.
The rebar, which was more than six meters long, kept sinking further into the ground.
‘Is it digging a tunnel?’
“Get back!!!” I yelled at Kim Hyeong-Jun and Do Han-Sol.
The two of them stepped away from the hole. I stepped back as well and heightened all of my senses.
‘This sly bastard.’
Since it couldn’t go up, it had decided to go down instead. I couldn't help but wonder if it would be able to hold its breath as it dug a tunnel for itself. However, what perplexed me the most was how it was going to come back up again. Despite it being a black creature, it was already six meters underground. I couldn’t predict where or how it would come back up.
Kim Hyeong-Jun swallowed, his eyes fixed on the hole. It seemed like he was thinking along the same lines as me.
“Ahjussi, can you tell where the black creature is?” he asked, his eyes wide.
“No, I can’t tell at all. There’s no way to tell what’s happening underground.”
No matter how heightened my senses were, there was no way for me to sense what was happening six meters underground.
Right at that moment, the black creature came flying out from the trap that we had dug, its entire body on fire. My jaw fell open as I saw it above us. It hadn’t come out from somewhere else; it had come out from the same hole.
It seemed like it had chosen to dig deeper in order to drain the gasoline before jumping back out. Kim Hyeong-Jun looked at the black creature, a smirk on his face.
"It’s trying to be a smart aleck, huh?” he said with a sigh.
I, for some reason, had assumed that it would come out from a different location. It managed to throw me off-guard, even though its skin was melting and it was having trouble breathing. Perhaps this feat was only possible because it was a black creature.
KWAAA…
Its skin slowly began to regenerate as the fire that engulfed it slowly died out. Steam was now slowly rising from its body.
Of course, I never expected that our first trap would be enough to kill the black creature. The trap was only meant to reduce its regenerative capacity. I accelerated my blood flow, just like what the black creature was doing, and looked at Kim Hyeong-Jun.
“Let’s move on to our next plan.”
Kim Hyeong-Jun loosened up his stiff shoulders and gritted his teeth.
“Alrighty. Let’s have some fun until then.”
I looked over at Do Han-Sol, who nodded and went ahead to the next location.
“Arnold!!”
At that moment, Mood-Swinger, Ji-Eun and the stage-one mutants arrived. They were a little late, but at least they had arrived. The black creature scrutinized the mutants, then flashed toward us in an instant as it channeled strength into its muscles.
“Kill it!”
Kim Hyeong-Jun and I rushed toward the black creature with our underlings, our blue eyes flashing.
* * *
Rat-a-tat-tat!!!
The survivors at the intersection of Pier 6 were firing away. Lee Jeong-Uk and Hwang Ji-Hye had their eyes fixed on the zombies approaching the first line of defense as they fired nonstop.
The facilities management team pushed shovels and bamboo spears into the holes at the bottom of the iron wall to prevent the zombies from getting closer. The food, clothing, and shelter teams behind the defense line threw Molotov cocktails over the iron wall to prevent the zombies from grouping up.
As time wore on, however, mounds of zombie corpses began to form on the other side of the iron wall. Kwak Dong-Won, the head of the facilities management team, shouted orders to the people at the bottom of the iron wall.
“Don’t stab ’em! Push ’em! We can’t let any more zombies pile up on each other!!”
The facilities management team did their best to break apart the mounds of zombie corpses by pushing long, thick and round tree trunks through the holes. However, the mounds were growing faster than the survivors could push the corpses aside.
Lee Jeong-Uk pulled the safety pin of a grenade and threw it into an area where the flames were dying out.
“Molotov cocktails!! Keep throwing the Molotov cocktails!!” he yelled toward the survivors behind him.
Lee Jeong-Uk, Kim Hyeong-Jun, and Do Han-Sol had taken care of countless zombies, but there were still thousands of zombies trying to claw their way into Port Jeju.
Kim Dae-Young, who was fighting alongside the survivors at the first line of defense, noticed that the iron wall was on the brink of collapsing and shouted toward Lee Jeong-Uk.
“Mr. Lee Jeong-Uk! I’m going down to buy us some time. Get everyone to replenish their ammunition! We also need to make more Molotov cocktails!”
Lee Jeong-Uk listened to what Kim Dae-Young said, then turned to see what they had left. They’d started out with boxes of Molotov cocktails, but now they were almost out, and there were empty magazines everywhere, piling up as the zombie mounds grew. They hadn’t had that many grenades to begin with, and the K3 gunners that were providing cover were replacing their barrels.
Lee Jeong-Uk clicked his tongue and looked at Kim Dae-Young.
“I’m counting on you.”
Kim Dae-Young nodded sharply and led his underlings around the mound of zombie corpses and toward the approaching enemies. Some of his underlings held the approaching zombies at bay, while others helped Kim Dae-Young clear out the corpses that had piled up in front of the iron wall.
“Mr. Kim Dae-Young!”
Jeong Jin-Young and his underlings came to provide support as well. When Kim Dae-Young saw Jeong Jin-Young, his eyes went wide.
“Why did you come all the way here?” he shouted. “I told you to stay at the second line of defense!”
“How could I just stand by and watch, knowing that all this is happening? I need to help as well.”
Kim Dae-Young stared at Jeong Jin-Young for a bit, then clicked his tongue vigorously.
“Then move these bodies aside. Hurry!"
“Got it!”
Jeong Jin-Young and Kim Dae-Young kept an eye on their underlings, who were fighting the street zombies as they cleared away the piles of corpses.
KIAAA!!!
At that moment, two stage-one mutants forced their way through Kim Dae-Young’s underlings. When Kim Dae-Young saw the two of them charging their way, he seemed taken aback, but quickly got back to his senses and looked over at Jeong Jin-Young.
“I’ll get the one on the left, you take the one on the right!”
Without waiting, Jeong Jin-Young rushed toward the stage-one mutant on the right. The eyes of that stage-one mutant swam about as it searched for suitable prey, and then it swung its right arm as hard as it could when it noticed Jeong Jin-Young charging at it.
Jeong Jin-Young’s eyes went wide, and he dropped into a defensive stance as he saw the huge arm flying toward him.
Whack!!
The impact shattered the bones in his left arm, and he was sent flying as he experienced a strange feeling of weightlessness. Jeong Jin-Young landed on the mound of corpses, and the stage-one mutant rushed forward to continue its attack.
A stage-one mutant posed a difficult challenge for Jeong Jin-Young. Kim Dae-Young was barely holding on; he could not spare any energy to give Jeong Jin-Young a hand.
KIAAAAAA!!!
The mutant howled and threw itself in front of Jeong Jin-Young.
Thud, thud, thud!!!
Just as the stage-one mutant jumped on top of Jeong Jin-Young to punch him, a series of gunshots came from the iron wall.
“Die, you fucking monster!!”
Yoon Jeong-Ho fired at the stage-one mutant in a state of frenzy. The other guards nearby belatedly noticed what was going on with Jeong Jin-Young, and started firing toward the mutant at once.
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