Chapter 82
The mutants used their bizarrely-bent limbs to strangle each other, and use their sharp teeth to tear at the other’s flesh and crush the other’s bones.
Kim Hyeong-Jun ordered the other underlings to stand back so that they wouldn’t get caught up in the fight. Their fight lasted for twenty minutes and finally ended when one of them suffered a bite on the neck and went down like a tree felled by lightning.
The victorious mutant tore off the defeated mutant’s head without the slightest hesitation.
“KIAAA!!!”
It let out a monstrous roar of victory and then started munching on the head. It wasn’t just eating its brain, like what Kim Hyeong-Jun or I would do. It was eating the entire head.
Kim Hyeong-Jun and I carefully observed the victorious mutant as we calmed ourselves down.
After finishing the head, the mutant smiled widely. Soon after, it twisted its body in an extreme way and curled up.
The mutant’s skin started to change.
Rip, rip, rip! Tear… Riiiip—
Its flesh melted while its bones shattered. Its melted flesh stuck to the floor like molten iron oozing out from a blast furnace, and its shattered bones started to come together.
After this transformation, all that was left of the mutant was a structure that resembled an egg.
Kim Hyeong-Jun observed the entire process, then stuttered,
‘Is… Is that… Is that an egg? Did the bones form an egg?'
'You can’t tell what’s going on?'
'What just happened?'
‘What do you mean? Your mutant won.'
I answered in an unamused tone, and Kim Hyeong-Jun raised his eyebrows.
'Ahjussi… You’re salty, aren’t you?'
'Oh geez, come on. I’m not.'
‘No, you’re definitely salty. Is it because my underling won?'
‘...’
'Well, I can’t help the fact that my underling is stronger. I believe I owe you an apology for that.’
Kim Hyeong-Jun kept up the teasing and let out a giggle.
I gave him a stern glare, and he smacked his lips and got back to the point.
'Geez ahjussi. It’s a joke. Why’d you gotta be so serious about it?’
'I know it’s because your underling attacked first.’'
'Damn, ahjussi, you are salty after all!'
Kim Hyeong-Jun chuckled and nudged me on the arm.
I shook my head and smacked my lips.
I was hoping to get a stage-two mutant deep down, but Kim Hyeong-Jun’s mutant won. I couldn’t help but feel slightly bitter.
However, his mutant wasn’t done mutating just yet. It was too early to relax.
Kim Hyeong-Jun looked me in the eyes.
'How long do you think we’ll have to wait?'
'I don't know. I didn’t get to hear about how long it would take.’
Just having the stage-one mutant turn into egg form was already a big success. It hadn’t vomited blood and died, like the others before it.
I wondered what was happening inside the egg. I was curious about how the mutant would turn out.
We looked on with nervous excitement as we waited for the egg to hatch.
* * *
Almost four hours had passed since we first saw the egg.
Suddenly, the egg, which had remained stationary throughout the four hours, shook a little.
'Huh? Ahjussi, didn’t it just move?'
'Yeah, it moved.'
We got up and cautiously walked toward the egg. Soon after, the egg started to crack.
Crack… Crack!
A thick arm burst out from the right side of the egg. It was thicker than an average adult male torso.
Cracks appeared all around the surface of the enormous egg, and a gigantic mutant emerged from within.
My jaw dropped to the ground after seeing the mutant in its entirety.
It was a whopping three meters tall. Its upper body and arms were as thick as a baobab tree, and its trapezius muscles reached all the way to its neck. Its skin looked hard, so hard that even a knife would not penetrate.
At first glance, it seemed to be purple, but after squinting, I noticed that its skin was a silvery hue.
Kim Hyeong-Jun clapped, a thrilled expression on his face.
'Ahjussi, check this out!'
'Yeah, yeah, I hear you. It’s too big for me to ignore anyway.'
‘It’s green! This thing is green to me!'
'Yeah, it’s purple to me too.'
I chuckled at Kim Hyeong-Jun, seeing him grinning with joy as he ran around checking out his stage-two mutant. I could tell how enthusiastic he was about his mutant.
After a moment, he started giving his stage-two mutant orders.
My jaw dropped to the ground after seeing what it was physically capable of.
It performed a vertical jump… that was seven meters high. And its running speed was beyond my imagination.
It did a hundred-meter dash in less than five seconds.
In addition to all this, its strength was mind-boggling. It pulled out a telephone pole with its bare hands as if it was a mere stick in the ground.
I suddenly wondered whether I would’ve survived if the Seongsu-dong leader had brought this stage-two mutant with him when we first met.
But of course, no matter how good its overall physical ability was, it paled in comparison to mine or Kim Hyeong-Jun’s.
Its movements were sluggish compared to the zombies with glowing red eyes who had specialized movements.
On strength alone, though… It was superior to me or Kim Hyeong-Jun.
‘I bet my bones will shatter instantly if it lands a direct hit on me…'
As I was lost in thought, the stage-two mutant suddenly fell to the floor and started muttering to itself.
"Losing… Gains…”
I looked at Kim Hyeong-Jun in surprise. Kim Hyeong-Jun looked back at me, his puzzled expression displaying the same amount of surprise.
He looked at the stage-two mutant again and gave it an order.
Then the stage-two mutant stood there and stomped the ground repeatedly in petulant displeasure. Kim Hyeong-Jun looked at me, at a loss as to what to do.
'What should I do, ahjussi?'
'Why, what's going on?'
'This mutant… It’s like a Mustang.'
‘Mustang? What are you talking about?'
'Like the car. Mustang. It’s got good power and all… But its fuel efficiency is awful. It runs out of energy after just a few simple tasks.’
I looked at the stage-two mutant after listening to Kim Hyeong-Jun’s explanation.
It was rubbing its lower belly with a dissatisfied expression. As I looked at it, I thought to myself,
‘Is it… Asking for food?’
I looked back at Kim Hyeong-Jun.
'What does it eat?'
‘The stuff you already know. Zombies or humans, probably.'
'Is it feeling hungry after that little bit of moving around?'
'I don’t know either. I’m not sure if its acting this way because it used a lot of energy during its mutation process, or just because it moved around…’
Kim Hyeong-Jun scratched his head, his expression clearly showing his bewilderment.
The stage-two mutant picked its bulky body up off the floor and shouted at Kim Hyeong-Jun.
“Losing… GAINS!”
The mutant crumpled in grief. It jumped up and down on the spot and continued to wail out the same phrase.
It wasn’t that Kim Hyeong-Jun had lost command over the creature. The mutant was merely acting like a three-year-old child asking for a toy.
The ground shook every time it jumped. It sure was heavy.
I now realized why the Seongsu-dong leader had ordered one of his stage-two mutants to commit suicide.
Kim Hyeong-Jun unwillingly ordered some of his underlings in front of the stage-two mutant.
The stage-two mutant looked at Kim Hyeong-Jun while sucking its finger. It smiled and repeated its phrase as a question.
“Losing… Gains?”
When Kim Hyeong-Jun smiled uncomfortably and gestured for it to eat the underlings, the stage-two mutant grabbed the zombies with its large palms and shoved them into its mouth.
I couldn’t help but click my tongue at its behavior.
Its existence was a burden. It was a black sheep.
Kim Hyeong-Jun looked like he was about to cry.
‘What should I do, ahjussi? I think I got myself a glutton.'
‘What do you mean? It's because your mutation’s strong.'
I smiled and stashed my hands in my pockets. Kim Hyeong-Jun narrowed his eyes and smacked his lips.
'Ahjussi.'
'What.'
'You really are narrow-minded. You know that, right?'
'Hey, hey, it was a joke. Why are you all serious?'
I snorted and gave him a lopsided grin. Kim Hyeong-Jun let out a deep sigh and shook his head.
The stage-two mutant inhaled three zombies instantly and sat down again, satisfied.
It hadn’t just eaten their heads. The zombies Kim Hyeong-Jun gave it were nowhere to be seen. It had eaten every part of them.
I looked at the smiling stage-two zombie. I had no idea what to do, or what to do next. Despite its powerful appearance, it acted like an immature child.
Kim Hyeong-Jun massaged his temples as if he was having a headache and sighed continuously.
* * *
Kim Hyeong-Jun spent days in the zombie prison, trying to gain knowledge about the stage-two mutant.
The stage-two mutant had some intelligence—the intelligence of a three-year-old boy.
It also jumped up and down in one spot like a mad beast if it wasn’t fed at least once a week.
Stage-one mutants also needed to be fed once a week, but after a period of three to four weeks, they stopped asking for food as they prepared themselves to become stage-two mutants.
I wondered if it was okay not to feed stage-two mutants after the same period of time.
Kim Hyeong-Jun was betting on this possibility because its continuous complaining exhausted the mind and body of whoever was next to it.
It's damned muscle loss.
Listening to it made me feel like I was going to develop a neurosis.
The stage-two mutant also asked for food whenever it completed a command that required it to use its physical abilities.
It was like a child asking for a snack after finishing their homework.
Long story short, it had to be fed periodically—once a week, to be precise—and after it followed your orders, you had to give it a treat as a reward.
While Kim Hyeong-Jun was growing his knowledge regarding the stage-two mutant, I finished cleaning up Majang-dong.
There were no survivors in Majang-dong.
Perhaps Mr. Kwak, Ms. Koo, and the children they had been protecting were the last survivors left in Majang-dong.
I created a second zombie prison in an unknown apartment located in Majang-dong once we ran out of space at the zombie prison in Haengdang-dong.
I didn’t have the capacity to manage two prisons.
It took around two hundred underlings to act as guards for a prison, but having four hundred of my underlings as guards was terribly inefficient. So Kim Hyeong-Jun ended up managing the second zombie prison in Majang-dong.
While I was organizing the documents for Shelter Hae-Young's meeting, Kim Hyeong-Jun came up to me.
'By the way, ahjussi.'
'What?'
'When are we going to get that medicine?'
'Oh shoot… I forgot.'
I remembered that I had a deal with Hwang Ji-Hye, the leader of Silence. I’d agreed to get her medicine in exchange for the weaponry I got.
I assumed that Silence would be almost out of medicine, since it had already been a month since we’d made the deal.
I massaged my neck and asked Kim Hyeong-Jun,
‘Is there a large hospital around here? I want to get them a large supply while I’m at it.'
'There’s a university hospital at Konkuk University Station.'
‘Konkuk University Station? The one next to Seongsu Station?'
'Yeah. It’s not even that far from Seoul Forest.'
I knew Konkuk University Hospital.
I had totally forgotten about our deal despite there being a university hospital within reach, as I’d been completely engrossed by my mutant research. The mutants had occupied my mind so much that I hadn’t been able to think of anything else.
I nodded and got up, then looked at Kim Hyeong-Jun.
‘Do you want to go together right now, if you have the time?’
‘I’m cool with that. But one thing though; do you think it’ll be okay to leave Mood-swinger by itself?’
‘Mood-swinger? Who’s that? You’re not talking about the stage-two mutant, are you?'
'Yeah. Don’t you think it’s a good nickname?'
Kim Hyeong-Jun sniffed with a hearty smile.
I… I couldn't help but admire Kim Hyeong-Jun's naming skills. Not in a good way, but not in a bad way either.
I refrained from mentioning anything about him naming his underlings. I mean, he had the right to call his underlings whatever he wanted.
I scratched my sideburns.
'You fed it yesterday, right? So it’ll probably be quiet for a week, no?’
‘Uh-huh.'
'Then let’s get this done in three days and return.'
'If we take longer than we anticipate, do you mind if I come back first? I get nervous even if I take my eyes off it for a split second.'
‘Then you should make it wait for you at Majang-dong, like me.'
I had five stage-one mutants on standby in Majang-dong.
I’d prepared a place for them as far away as possible from Shelter Hae-Young, in case the mutants caused a problem while they were in Haengdang-dong.
Kim Hyeong-Jun snapped his fingers, and his expression lit up with realization. He gave a quick nod.
‘Let’s get going.’
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