Chapter 70 - Run
The mercenary's trembling flashlight cast a quivering glow over his comrades ahead.
Once lifeless bodies, their faces buried against the cold floor.
Now, they were rising.
Like marionettes pulled by unseen strings, they moved.
"Hhhooo... hhhooo—"
Their ragged, wheezing breaths scraped through the air, their pitch-black, dead eyes locking onto the group.
Maximo raised his assault rifle.
Natasha leveled her pump-action shotgun straight ahead.
Their bodies moved instinctively, even in the midst of shock.
This wasn't just training—it was something ingrained deep within their bones through countless real battles.
This was why they were veterans.
This was why they were Level 3 solos.
Yet, despite their quick reactions, neither pulled the trigger.
Because in that split second—
A brilliant violet arc of lightning erupted, slicing through the darkness.
And then came the sound of something being crushed.
CRACK!!
The sickening rupture made the mercenary jump in fright.
His flashlight quivered violently in his shaking hand, the shifting beam casting erratic shadows on the surroundings.
Beyond that unstable illumination—blood exploded.
It splattered with such force that droplets speckled across Natasha and Maximo's faces like an accidental pointillist painting.
But this was only the beginning.
"KEEEEEEEK!!"
The risen corpses bared their elongated fangs, lunging like rabid beasts.
Only to be hurled backward just as quickly.
Skulls caved in.
Bones tore through flesh.
Necks twisted at unnatural angles.
CRACKLE!!
A fist, wreathed in spiraling lightning, struck a corpse lunging for a throat.
With a wet, splitting sound, its head snapped back.
Bits of flesh followed the motion, plastering onto the wall before oozing down in dark, crimson trails.
Another creature that had bared its fangs found its lower jaw obliterated by a knee strike, collapsing in an instant.
The resurrected dead, clawing their way back from death, were swiftly returned to it by a living storm.
No exceptions.
CRACKLE!
With every flash of lightning, death struck indiscriminately.
And in the midst of the carnage, one lone figure stood tall.
Drenched in blood.
"..."
A cross-stitched flight jacket.
A side profile barely visible in the dim light.
Lightning flickered erratically around the figure, making the group hold their breath.
"Hoo—"
A slow exhale.
The storm dissipated.
Jin turned, shaking off the blood coating his hands, and casually spoke.
"I know what this is. Berserkers, right?!"
His voice brimmed with confidence, his smirk hinting at satisfaction—like a student who finally knew the answer to a tough question.
Ah, so it wasn't anything scary after all.
I've taken down plenty of Berserkers before.
Call me the Berserker Killer, peasants.
Jin was about to gloat further—
But the mercenary slowly shook his head.
"...No. Not Berserkers."
"Huh?"
"They—they're not Berserkers."
"...?"
Jin frowned at the repeated denial, then instinctively glanced down.
Unfortunately, right at that moment—
His eyes met a lifeless, glossy stare.
"Ugh."
Reflexively, Jin kicked the corpse's head like a soccer ball.
It soared through the air before disappearing into the darkness.
He grimaced, then turned to the mercenary.
"...Then what the hell are these things?"
Berserkers—people infected with the invasive malware, Berserk.
This virus forcibly corrupts the cybernetic neural socket, flooding the brain with ceaseless, destructive imagery.
Emotions are erased.
What remains is raw, distilled aggression—a human reduced to a rampaging monster.
In other words, Berserkers are frenzied humans, not the undead.
Yet, those things just now… they were undoubtedly corpses.
"So what, are we dealing with zombies now?"
Jin scowled at Natasha's explanation.
"Shh!"
Maximo pressed a finger to his lips—then pointed into the darkness.
In a hushed whisper, he warned—
"Something's coming."
At that moment, at the edge of the flashlight's glow—where the underground darkness began—
A pale face emerged.
Its tattered, shredded civilian clothes suggested someone who had fled from somewhere.
If not for its pitch-black, lifeless eyes, they might have stopped to ask what had happened.
"...Shit."
Maximo muttered under his breath.
Natasha wasted no time.
She pulled the trigger.
BANG!
The corpse's head exploded, showering the area in gore.
Even as its remains slumped, she smoothly pumped the shotgun's slide—ejecting the spent shell and chambering the next round.
She took a step forward, eyes locked ahead.
"There's too many!"
At the same time, Jin pulled down the goggles resting on his forehead.
His vision was immediately flooded with an eerie green hue.
And within it—
A countless swarm of bodies.
Far too many to take on directly.
Even Jin, who had been ready to settle things here, grimaced.
"We need to move—now!"
Maximo barked, firing short, controlled bursts at the charging horde.
Meanwhile, Jin spotted another corpse lunging from a side corridor.
Without hesitation, he unsheathed Gravis—
And cleaved its head clean off.
Then, hoisting the coughing mercenary onto his shoulder with his other arm—
"Follow me!"
—he shouted loudly and dashed toward the path on the right.
He had chosen this route precisely because there were no corpses in sight.
Yet, barely moments after he started running, bodies came crashing down ahead of him.
Literally crashing down.
For some reason, the structure of the cavern allowed corpses to suddenly tumble from the ceiling like Lego blocks, forming a barricade.
Left with no choice, he had to change direction.
"Where the hell are they coming from?!"
Jin shouted as he blew a hole through the forehead of a lunging corpse.
Behind the falling one, another face loomed in close.
"Kyahh!!"
Jin swung Gravis straight into the gaping maw of the creature aiming for his throat.
There was no time to catch his breath.
Left? Right? Diagonal?
Screw it! Left!
There was no time for deliberation.
Instinct was all he could rely on.
Meanwhile, the mercenary on his shoulder suddenly began convulsing.
"We're all gonna die! Every last one of us!!"
"Damn it, stop squirming, you bastard!"
Jin snapped, instantly regretting that he hadn't knocked the guy out beforehand.
He was tempted to just throw him aside, but there were still too many things he needed to ask.
Right now, he was their only surviving witness.
Which meant there was no choice—he had to keep running like hell.
"Out of my way, you zombie fuckers!"
Gravis' muzzle spewed flames.
The magazine emptied quickly, but that was fine.
He had come well-prepared.
Despite the panicked mercenary bouncing wildly on his shoulder, Jin managed to reload and took off at full speed.
Even amidst the chaos, he didn't forget to check behind him.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
With rhythmic precision, Natasha pumped her shotgun, obliterating the heads of the oncoming corpses.
Even while reloading, she remained composed, smoothly evading attacks before resuming fire.
If Natasha was ice-cold, then Maximo was the exact opposite—
"Don't touch my bag!"
—yelling as he ran on his short legs, he started hurling grenades at the zombies chasing him.
Not just one, either.
Like someone tossing away boiled eggs, he kept rolling fragmentation grenades onto the ground as he fled.
Boom! Boom!
Explosions echoed at steady intervals.
Thinking about it, both of them were solo hunters on par with Fenrir.
There was no need to worry about them.
Satisfied that they could handle themselves, Jin focused ahead once more.
Right now, his role was vanguard—the one responsible for ensuring the team's survival.
This was no time to be distracted.
Gritting his teeth, he plowed through the wall of corpses.
Honestly, he wasn't even sure if these things were zombies.
Why did they keep going for the throat?
Whatever—they weren't human, that was all that mattered.
That made things much easier.
Jin never treated his enemies like mere experience points for the sake of his sanity, but in this case, it was different.
Come on, you bastards!
He charged forward, eyes blazing.
What followed was pure hell.
Corpses swarming from every direction.
A constantly obstructed field of vision.
The cavern's structure making it impossible to gauge their location.
A perfect storm of terrible conditions.
Who knew how long they had fought?
At last, the relentless assault eased, and they stumbled into a corpse-free zone.
Collapsing onto the ground, they gasped for breath, unable to speak.
Eventually, as their breathing steadied, they hauled themselves up.
"…Jin, you okay?"
"Yeah. You?"
"I'm fine."
While Jin and Natasha whispered to each other, Maximo peeked out beyond the wall before speaking in a hushed tone.
"No corpses in sight. I think we lost them."
Only then did all three turn to look at the unconscious mercenary sprawled on the ground.
"Hey. Wake up."
"...Ugh… Huh…?"
Jin shook his shoulder, and the mercenary groaned, slowly opening his eyes.
There were a million questions Jin wanted to ask, but the guy's condition was a mess.
He kept muttering nonsense, his eyes darting around in near paranoia—making any proper conversation impossible.
Still, the group didn't give up.
Their comms were dead, the entrance was gone.
Wherever they looked, there was only endless darkness. Just staring into it felt like it would swallow their very souls.
And they had been chased by a horde of the dead.
If they left him like this, they could end up just like him.
So they coaxed him, soothed him when he whimpered, never snapped at him when he whined.
When he said he was hungry, they shared their rations.
Perhaps that's why—
At some point, the focus returned to the mercenary's eyes.
"…What… What do you want to know?"
The mercenary's lips moved with a noticeably clearer pronunciation than before.
But no one could guarantee how long this state would last.
That was why Jin wasted no time and asked a question right away—
While placing a chocolate bar into the trembling mercenary's hand.
"I'd appreciate it if you could tell me exactly what happened here."
"...What happened..."
The mercenary mumbled quietly before taking a bite of the chocolate bar.
Then, as he chewed, he moved his lips again.
"Wh-what day is it today?"
In response, Jin silently held out his terminal and lit up the screen.
The mercenary checked the date and twisted the corner of his lips.
"...A-already fifteen days have passed?"
Muttering to himself, he pressed his palm against his face.
A brief silence followed.
Then, a trembling voice seeped through his fingers.
"The ruins those mole bastards found... were actually someone's tomb. There was something inside that should have never been awakened, but... maybe because they hadn't seen sunlight for too long, their minds were all messed up. They went insane... started calling that thing a god. Offering themselves as sacrifices. Ahh..."
His hands, which had crept up his face, now clenched tightly around his hair.
"And that's not all. That monstrous bastard roams this place. Stays quiet most of the time, but when the time comes, the hunt begins."
His pupils flickered uneasily from side to side.
His voice took on a sharp, metallic edge.
"If you die to that thing, you turn into a monster too. All those mole bastards... every last one of them became monsters. But it's still not enough. It keeps saying it needs more. More and more..."
Sensing the signs of an impending seizure, Jin reached out and placed a hand on the mercenary's shoulder.
And in that instant—
A chilling shiver crawled up the back of his neck.
Crackle!
An electric surge coursed through his body against his will.
A reaction from the Polar Radiance, sensing imminent danger.
Jin slowly turned his head.
Splish, splish—
The sound of wet footsteps echoed beyond the cavern entrance.
Natasha and Maximo, who should have instinctively pulled the trigger without hesitation, found themselves unable to move in that moment.
A suffocating stench of blood filled the air.
Far worse than anything they had encountered on the first underground floor—an overwhelming scent of death loomed there.
And in the next moment—
As Jin stood up, now facing the entrance—
A horrifying voice emerged from the darkness.
"Za-had."