Chapter 49
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Survivors II
Shin Noah
4
"Vice Guild Master. Can I see you for a moment?"
The first time I became aware of Baekhwa Girls' High School's existence was in the 5th iteration.
It was still the era when I was living as Dang Seo-rin's right hand in the Three Thousand Worlds guild.
"Yes. What is it, Guild Master?"
"It's nothing major, just some new information. Have you ever heard of a place called Baekhwa Girls' High School?"
"Nyaa," went the black cat the guild was raising at the time (Dang Seo-rin said: essential witch item), nuzzling against my knee.
"No. I've never heard of it."
"Hmm. Well, apparently there's a school called Baekhwa Girls' High School. The whole thing got swallowed by a Gate. Almost a year? But it opened last week."
"A year. Then there wouldn't be any survivors."
Whether then or now, I made judgments based on sound common sense and healthy intellect.
Dang Seo-rin lowered her voice.
"Well... surprisingly, that's not the case."
"Excuse me?"
"It's not exact, but roughly 20 people survived, apparently."
My eyes widened.
"Nyaa," meowed Kkamang-i.
"20 people? Is that true?"
"Mmm... I'd like to say that definitively, but I don't know for sure. It's still at the rumor level. The information I have is 'the Gate was closed for 1 year,' 'there are about 20 survivors,' and 'everyone trapped in the Gate was a high school student.'"
"High school students, even."
I couldn't hide my amazement.
As I said, even I, a regressor, needed 3 iterations to clear Busan Station. And even then, the only survivor was me.
Both Dang Seo-rin and I could agree on how appalling Baekhwa Girls' High School's survival rate was.
"Guild Master. If that's true..."
"Yes. It means that among the survivors, there's an incredible talent, truly an unprecedented-level awakener."
Dang Seo-rin reached out and stroked Kkamang-i's waist. The cat trembled.
"So, I'd like you to go investigate personally, Vice Guild Master, even if it's a bit troublesome. Whether the rumors are true, and if so, whether there is an unprecedented-level awakener, and if one exists――"
"We need to recruit them to our guild."
"Yes."
"Understood. I'll make sure to scout them before other guilds get ideas."
"Reliable. Oh, right."
Dang Seo-rin added as an afterthought.
"If their moral character has serious defects, there's no need to recruit them."
Thinking back now, our witch may have had prophetic powers.
Actually, thinking coldly about it, it was something that could obviously be predicted.
Even physically healthy and mentally sound adults, once trapped in the Void and released, end up turning into lunatics. So what would happen if emotionally volatile high school students played through a long-term real horror game?
I started to feel the answer the moment I arrived at Baekhwa Girls' High School's 'guild headquarters.'
"...This is a guild building?"
Caw, caw-
Crows cried.
Just as the Saintess lived in the Aquarium Temple and Dang Seo-rin stayed in a train, awakeners with unusual spiritual worlds had distinct house designs from the start. Baekhwa Girls' High School was the same.
Baekhwa Girls' High School, literally, was using an actual school building as their guild hideout.
(Con)gratulations on 2 acceptances to Seo■ University! (Congrats)
The banner hanging at the school gate was already tattered.
The 'ul' character in 'Seoul University' was completely riddled with holes. Of course, it could have been Sogang University or Seokyeong University, so it couldn't be confirmed without observation.
The athletic field was pitted here and there as if bombarded by meteors. The soccer goal's net was tangled into such a mess that even Alexander the Great would shake his head.
The highlight was the dormitory and school buildings, with walls collapsed, exposing the steel skeleton completely.
'This isn't a school, it's just an abandoned school, isn't it?'
I wasn't the protagonist of a horror game. So I hesitated about whether I should actually go in.
"Excuse me. What business do you have here?"
"Ah, well..."
As I stood awkwardly in front of the gate, security guards approached.
And, um... the security guards' appearance was quite unique.
To put it bluntly, their heads were smashed open.
"......"
In other words, zombies.
The security guard was exposing his skull to the world. Yet his manner toward me was very polite. If he'd been wearing a motorcycle helmet, I wouldn't have known he was a zombie.
"I'm sorry, but if you have no business here, please leave. This is a private school. Outsiders cannot enter freely."
"Uh, um."
Even I, who prided myself on having quite some experience as a regressor, couldn't easily judge what to say in this situation.
If they're zombies, aren't they monsters? Should I take them down on sight?
"...I've come from the Three Thousand Worlds guild."
"Three Thousand Worlds? Guild?"
The zombie guard tilted his smashed skull.
"Where is that?"
"Uh... it's the most influential guild in Busan, though."
Wait, hold on. Why am I explaining things to a monster?
I suddenly had a realization and straightened my expression.
"I've come to meet the person in charge here. Are they available?"
"Ah, you're a guest of the Student Council President."
Student Council President?
"She's in class right now, so she can't come out immediately."
"Class?"
"Pardon? Yes. This is a school. Of course, the students are in class at this hour."
"......"
At this point, I already had a hunch.
A very, very familiar sense of foreboding.
It was similar to the ominous feeling that washed over my entire body when I accepted Dang Seo-rin's recruitment offer, went to Three Thousand Worlds, and suddenly heard 'Ah, by the way, anyone who joins our guild must wear a cone hat regardless of location.'
After a long life as a regressor, I had acquired a sixth sense.
The so-called 'crazy radar.' A sensory organ that manifested only in regressors.
When a certain level of crazy was detected, a tingling sensation would climb from my tailbone to my neck. Especially now, when the warning siren was blaring from my 4th cervical vertebra—considering it only tingled up to the 6th thoracic vertebra when I met Dang Seo-rin—this was an extraordinary level of crazy.
'Should I run away?'
If I had a bit more experience, I would have immediately retreated in response to my body's siren.
But in the 5th iteration, I was pointlessly upright. I clung to the utterly meaningless principle that 'even so, I can't just abandon the mission Dang Seo-rin entrusted me with full authority.'
"...I see. Understood. How long do I need to wait until class ends?"
"Hmm."
The security guard turned his head to look at the clock.
It was a giant clock installed on the school's exterior wall, displaying a design that didn't seem out of place with the surrounding scenery at all. Meaning the clock hands were broken and the clock wasn't working.
But perhaps the zombie guard had a sixth sense like mine, as he very easily checked the time from the broken clock.
"About 15 minutes and it'll be break time. It's a bit awkward to make a guest stand... Would you like to go inside and wait?"
"I'll just wait here."
I answered immediately. I didn't want to step foot past this school gate if possible. While I didn't outright flee, I was heeding my spinal reaction to some extent.
The security guard shrugged.
"Is that so? Well, please wait however you're comfortable."
Not long after, my judgment was proven very correct.
"Ding- dong- dang- dong."
"......?"
I looked at the security guard.
Please note that I just described the sound effect in quotation marks. In other words, this 'ding-dong-dang-dong' wasn't a bell sound. It wasn't a bell broadcast from speakers, nor was it a bell ringing from a bell tower.
It was dialogue that the security guard, the skull-smashed zombie, was producing by moving his mouth and throat.
"Ding- dong- dang- dong."
"......"
The moment I saw that sight, my 3rd cervical vertebra tingled.
Just as mice cause a commotion before an earthquake, my cervical spine's premonition wasn't wrong this time either. Zombies came swarming out of the school building—or more precisely, the abandoned school building.
"Ding- dong- dang- dong."
"Ding- dong- dang- dong."
The zombies were all wearing school uniforms—that is, Baekhwa Girls' High School uniforms. And hundreds of zombies all moved their lips to chant 'ding-dong-dang-dong.'
"......"
I trembled.
'Let's run away.'
But it was already too late.
"You wanted to see me?"
A living human walked out from among the hundreds of zombies. Wearing the same white uniform as the zombies.
Hairstyle was a ponytail. Orange-dyed hair.
At a private school that should have preserved long traditions, such hair color would inevitably stand out—which probably meant she received some kind of support among the students—and she approached me as if she were a student called out because a visitor had come during class.
"Who are you?"
That was Cheon Yo-hwa.
"...Hello. I'm Jang Eui-sa, the Vice Guild Master of Busan's Three Thousand Worlds guild."
"Hmm? Guild? Vice Guild Master?"
Cheon Yo-hwa tilted her head. Judging by her words alone, it was a fairly cute reaction.
The problem was her eyes.
Cheon Yo-hwa's eyes lacked focus. Or rather, the iris and pupil were indistinguishable. Her eyeballs were stained pitch-black like wells.
"What's that? First time I've heard of it."
"Uh... I see. Um. A guild refers to a group where awakeners gather."
"Awakeners?"
"...Awakeners is a term for people who possess special abilities."
Cheon Yo-hwa blinked.
My 3rd cervical vertebra also blinked its warning light in turn. Quite fiercely.
"Special abilities? What's that? Mister, are you an otaku?"
"No, I... Excuse me, but what is your name?"
"Ah, I'm Cheon Yo-hwa."
At this point, she politely bowed in greeting.
And I let my guard down somewhat at this 'normal-seeming reaction.' I couldn't help it—I'd always had a weakness for polite people. It was the same with Goyori.
From this point on, a parade of verbal slip-ups began from my mouth. Though at the time, I wasn't even aware they were slip-ups.
"I'm serving as the student council president here."
"Hmm. Cheon Yo-hwa, you haven't awakened an ability either. I don't know what kind of ability it is, but right now, whether it's that security guard, or the [zombies] roaming the athletic field, or the abilities of awakeners belonging to this place――"
"Huh? Zombies?"
Fatal slip-up number 1.
"Yes. Cheon Yo-hwa's ability is very powerful. Whether you've made [corpses] into zombies, or whether you've made even living people into zombies, I don't know, but..."
"...Corpses?"
Fatal slip-up number 2.
"If it's Cheon Yo-hwa and the guild members here, you could obtain a much better environment than now. We at Three Thousand Worlds don't make empty promises. There's no need to live difficultly in this [abandoned school] with a collapsed roof and falling exterior walls."
"......"
Fatal slip-up number 3.
"Of course, I'm not suggesting anything immediately. Just please spare a moment to set up an appointment, and we'll adjust our schedule to visit formally..."
"Please leave."
"Excuse me?"
"Leave our school right now."
Only then did I realize that the surroundings had grown quiet.
The security guard who had reacted like a living person until earlier, the zombies that had crowded the athletic field, the real students interspersed here and there, and Cheon Yo-hwa before my eyes.
They were all staring blankly in my direction.
"......"
"Never mind. Don't leave."
Tch.
Cheon Yo-hwa grabbed my wrist.
"We were short on security guards anyway. Mm. This works out well. Mister, want to [get a job] at our school? Security guard mister. Yeah, I think that would be good."
"......"
"Or you could [transfer schools]. The basketball team juniors have been complaining lately that there are too few new students."
My 2nd cervical vertebra caused a tingling disc symptom.
Even I, in my 5th iteration when I had not an ounce of situational awareness, could recognize that this was a screwed situation. I immediately slapped away Cheon Yo-hwa's hand and fled without hesitation.
I fully expected 'enemies' to chase after me. It was a reasonable judgment, and therefore a wrong one.
The beings belonging to Baekhwa Girls' High School did not pursue me.
When I looked back, they hadn't taken a single step beyond the school gate.
"......"
The wall crossing between the school and outside was crumbled in places. But the zombies never crossed the school's boundary as if there were an 'invisible wall.'
From right behind the gate, from just beyond the wall, hundreds of gazes stared blankly at this side like cicadas stuck to a wall.
"Ding- dong- dang- dong."
"Ding- dong- dang- dong."
"Ding- dong- dang- dong."
The bell rang through the abandoned school grounds. The zombies turned their bodies again.
"Ah, break time is over."
Cheon Yo-hwa muttered expressionlessly. She too mixed among the zombies and shambled toward the school's main gate. Not just corpses but 'real humans' were scattered here and there, but honestly, I couldn't tell what was different from the zombies.
They seemed less like individual independent entities and more like a cluster connected as a whole.
The athletic field instantly fell silent.
Listening carefully, I could hear voices leaking from the school building in the distance. It was English. From another classroom came the sound of teaching mathematics.
Astonishingly, Baekhwa Girls' High School's guild members—including the zombies—were taking 'classes' inside the school building.
"...These crazy people."
That was my first meeting with Cheon Yo-hwa.
First contact attempt with aliens, failed.
"They're crazy kids."
Dang Seo-rin also reached the same conclusion after receiving my report.
"Sometimes there are lunatics like that. So, Vice Guild Master? Do you think there'll be damage to civilians? Then we'd have to subjugate them."
"I can't say for certain yet, but I don't think we need to worry about civilian damage. They're holed up in the abandoned school and not coming out."
"Hmm, is that so?"
At my counsel, Dang Seo-rin made an extremely reasonable judgment.
"Then let's not touch them if possible. No need to stir up a hornet's nest."
"A wise decision."
"Yes. I'm always wise."
"Cone hat."
"An ornament that puts the crown on my extreme wisdom."
Three Thousand Worlds cleanly washed their hands of it.
But the world didn't consist only of rational people like us.
5
Human craziness was like the king of fruits, the durian.
No matter how tightly you seal it in a box, it announces its overwhelming presence to its surroundings.
Not long after I returned having learned my lesson thoroughly, every awakener on the Korean peninsula began paying attention to Baekhwa Girls' High School.
"Necromancer? A mage-type awakener?"
"And freely controlling hundreds of corpses?"
"Total jackpot rookie."
"Recruit them! No matter what, agree to any conditions and bring them in!"
It was the era of human-punk where all resources were being replaced by manpower.
While other resources were all screwed, corpses were being excavated abundantly, making the necromancer profession itself overflow with appeal.
Of course, I knew that overflowing appeal was exactly the same as Pandora's box. In other words, the moment you unwrapped it, Grandpa Santa would deliver disaster to the whole world.
"Everyone, that place is practically a Void den. I strongly recommend not entering."
"Is Three Thousand Worlds afraid of our guild's development?"
"Ignore them. They failed to recruit, so they're trying to sabotage us. Ignore, ignore."
Foolishly, the guild masters ignored my kind advice.
Their eyes had rolled back at the appearance of a super-premium rookie item.
"Wow! Not some new-god virus knockoff but a real necromancer controlling a zombie army!"
"Move... Everyone move! If we just have a black mage, maybe we can break Dang Seo-rin's dominance!"
When the biggest club, Three Thousand Worlds, declared they'd sit out this FA transfer market, other guild masters rushed in like crazy.
They carefully selected the most attractive grim reapers from their guilds, dispatched them, and enthusiastically mashed the 'recruit' button.
The only difference between those grim reapers and me was the presence of spinal nerves.
"Uh... Why aren't they coming back from Baekhwa Girls' High School?"
"You guys too? Our guild member has gone completely silent too."
No matter how long the guild masters waited, the grim reapers didn't return.
Eventually, exhausted, the guild masters who visited Baekhwa Girls' High School personally witnessed an amazing sight.
"Wait, yo- yo- why are you working here?"
"Huh? I'm just an ordinary security guard."
"What?"
Every talent the guilds had dispatched had all gotten jobs at Baekhwa Girls' High School instead.
Moreover, whether holes got punched in their skulls during job interviews, the new security guards had all released their brain matter along with their memories of their past lives to the outside. They didn't even recognize the faces of the guild masters they'd served in the past.
Just as when you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you—dispatching to recruit new talent only to lose existing talent instead was something that could always happen. But the guild masters' character cultivation was too immature to accept such truths.
"What the f... Alright, this won't work. Crush them!"
And whoever intends to crush others must always be prepared to be crushed themselves.
The guilds that jumped in declaring revenge on Baekhwa Girls' High School all, without a single exception, succeeded in 'getting jobs.' In this era of employment crisis, Baekhwa Girls' High School alone carried and significantly lowered the Korean peninsula's unemployment rate.
"Holy crap... What is that?"
"Jang Eui-sa was actually right?"
The guild masters were horrified.
"We should never touch those guys."
"Fuck, did you see what they eat in the school cafeteria? Human flesh! They're sitting there eating human flesh! Crazy bastards."
"Fuck, not persimmons you can't eat, but zombies you can't eat."
But it was already too late.
Pandora's box had been opened.
Baekhwa Girls' High School reached temporary saturation. Naturally, since new security guards suddenly got jobs en masse. No matter how prestigious a school with history and tradition, 136 security guards felt a bit excessive.
The unplanned personnel recruitment inevitably placed a huge burden on Baekhwa Girls' High School's financial operations.
If Cheon Yo-hwa had been an ordinary corporate CEO, she would have wielded the three great swords here: 'workforce reduction,' 'mass layoffs,' and 'restructuring.'
But Cheon Yo-hwa was a freak on a completely different track from ordinariness. She judged that now was actually the timing to push for aggressive merger policies.
"Uh, uh oh?"
"They... why are they increasing?"
Literally, the 'school' expanded.
More precisely, the school's range gradually expanded more and more.
The building that originally stood in front of Baekhwa Girls' High School became a 'tteokbokki restaurant' and a 'convenience store' at some point. This wasn't to say they actually sold tteokbokki at the store.
"Hello, owner. Two orders of tteokbokki and add 3 steamed dumplings!"
the zombie student said.
"Our student is so pretty, I added an extra dumpling."
the zombie owner replied.
Nothing was exchanged between them. The zombie student handed over transparent money and the zombie owner handed over transparent tteokbokki. And both smiled happily.
This was on the normal side.
Sometimes, after handing over transparent money, they even received 'human flesh tteokbokki.'
The sound of students' laughter never ceased at the snack shop in front of the school. The shops thrived every lunch hour and after school. This was true creative economy.
"Hello! I'm Baekhwa Girls' High School Student Council President Cheon Yo-hwa!"
"Eek...! S-spare me!"
"Oh wait, just a moment. Our students are really interested in off-campus experiential learning lately! Would you be interested in working with our school?"
"I'm not interested! Get lost!"
"Thank you!"
"......"
The guilds that had established territory around Baekhwa Girls' High School surrendered one by one to the school's enthusiasm for education.
In less than a year, an unprecedented academy city was born on the Korean peninsula.
An infinite regressor telling a story.