Immortals vs. Grim Reapers - chapter 10
Chapter 10: Grim Reaper Tutorial (Part 2)
After a brief rest, Gangrim set out with Yu Wolryeong.
Yu Wolryeong was driving a silver Bentley.
Even to Gangrim’s limited knowledge, having little interest in cars, it seemed like an exceptionally expensive vehicle, with various custom options added.
The sky in the direction they were heading was bizarrely twisted into a circular shape.
It was the scene near Bukhansan, where a gate was opening.
Gangrim understood why grim reapers called gates “Cheonmun” (Heavenly Gate).
The gate that started at Bukhansan and grew to engulf most of northern Seoul remained one of the top five largest gates in history until the world’s end.
“Even at this time…”
Gangrim spoke to Yu Wolryeong as she drove.
“People thought the gate would close soon, and they’d be able to return to their normal lives. Most gates close naturally, after all.”
That was probably the hope of most people.
But as time passed, there was no news of the gate closing, and rumors spread of zombie hunters and military forces retreating, unable to withstand the zombie hordes in various places.
“Before long, the government finally admitted to abandoning Gangbuk. It was the first moment humanity surrendered to a gate.”
It wasn’t something to blame the government for.
It was unprecedented for a gate of this scale to open, or for one to open in such a large city and not close.
Amidst that chaos, the government chose to protect at least the area south of the Han River.
“That’s when I thought: the world I knew would never return.”
“…The world you knew, Mr. Ju Gangrim, was an illusion from the start.”
Yu Wolryeong spoke quietly as she drove.
“The Immortals had been living hidden among humanity all along, even if you weren’t aware. As long as they exist, the boundary between the afterlife and the living world is as thin as an eggshell.”
Yu Wolryeong was right.
Grim reapers and Immortals had existed in legends since ancient times. The same goes for the dead.
They were just separated from us.
“That’s what it means for the ‘boundary to collapse.’ It means stepping into a world you’ve never seen before and don’t want to.”
Screech. Yu Wolryeong’s car came to a stop.
Armed soldiers were checking vehicles and people in front of Banpo Bridge.
Most of the crowd was coming across the bridge, but there were hardly any people heading north, so the soldiers looked puzzled.
“What’s your business?”
Instead of answering, Yu Wolryeong handed over a business card.
The soldier looked back and forth between Yu Wolryeong and Gangrim with a confused expression before letting them pass.
Wondering what kind of business card could grant passage without a word, Gangrim looked at it as Yu Wolryeong passed it to him.
‘Samdo Zombie Hunting Specialists—CEO Yu Wolryeong.’
“Zombie hunting specialists…”
“To operate in the living world, you need a plausible business card. We’ll have one made for you soon, Mr. Ju Gangrim, so please wait.”
“Uh, well. Then are all the other hunters also…”
“There are only three of us, including you and me. Of course, that person is also a reaper.”
A zombie hunting company made up of grim reapers.
Though it was likely a paper company, Gangrim felt their foundation in the living world was more solid than he’d expected.
It seemed Yeomna wasn’t just fooling around in the afterlife.
Anyway, he could understand why the soldier had let them pass so easily. Who would stop zombie hunters voluntarily walking into a zombie-infested area?
As expected, countless refugees were crossing the bridge despite the late hour.
‘Refugees, even though there’s no war.’
The government was consoling people, saying it was just temporary evacuation due to the gate, and most believed it.
But Gangrim knew.
None of them would ever return to Gangnam.
The situation would steadily worsen, South Korea would fall, governments around the world would collapse one by one, and finally, all of humanity would meet an equal death in the overflowing tide of death.
That was the fate awaiting humanity.
“It feels like crossing a river of no return.”
Gangrim smiled bitterly as they crossed the Han River. But Yu Wolryeong spoke calmly, her expression unchanged.
“We’ve already returned from that river. To set right the collapsing boundary.”
Not long after crossing the bridge, a desolate neighborhood came into view. It was an area where evacuation had already been completed.
Gangrim looked around the eerie neighborhood and said,
“Was it not possible to regress to before the Gangbuk Incident?”
“Impossible. Bimang’s records start from this point, so there’s no choice.”
“Bimang? You mean this?”
Gangrim asked, holding up the phone in his hand.
Yu Wolryeong just nodded slightly without further explanation.
Whatever other functions Bimang might have, it meant further regression was impossible. It seemed the Gangbuk Incident couldn’t be prevented by regression.
“We should start from here.”
Yu Wolryeong stopped in front of a gloomy villa complex.
“There are a considerable number of zombies inside this villa. Please put them all to rest.”
Ding.
A notification appeared on Gangrim’s Bimang as well.
“Mission: Another Night (Repeatable)”
“Objective 1: Hunt Zombies (0/10)”
“Reward 1: 10 nyang soul pay per 10 zombies”
“Additional Reward: (Special) 100 nyang soul pay for completely clearing the area”
It was an ordinary repeatable quest with one special condition reward.
Since each zombie gave an average of 2 nyang soul pay, it meant he could earn about 30 nyang per 10 zombies.
“Lord Yeomna should have sent you specific mission details. I’ll return here before sunrise.”
“Ah, yes. Then I’ll see you in the morning.”
Yu Wolryeong nodded lightly and started the car.
Suddenly left in the middle of a zombie-infested neighborhood, Gangrim was at a loss, but it wasn’t unexpected. Besides, hunting zombies at night wasn’t a new experience for him.
“…Feels like old times.”
Gangrim lowered his hand.
Swoosh, the Death Sword seeped down like mist and settled in his hand.
Though the sensation was still unfamiliar, once he got used to it, summoning and dismissing it felt natural.
Gangrim stepped into the villa.
Being an already evacuated area, there were no signs of human presence.
But if it had been safely evacuated, Yu Wolryeong wouldn’t have brought him here.
Gangrim recalled his days as a zombie hunter and began searching slowly from the first floor.
‘First, the ones sensitive to sound.’
Gangrim struck the wall with his hand axe to draw out the zombies’ reactions.
Footsteps were heard. Gangrim focused his eyes and activated ‘Bihyeong’s Eyes.’
Whoosh.
A bluish flame began to burn on the opposite wall.
Though it burned nothing and gave off no smell, the flame brightly illuminated the dark interior of the house. Soon, a zombie emerged, stumbling in the dark blue light.
As expected, it couldn’t see Gangrim.
Gangrim waited for it to come close enough before bringing down his hand axe on its head.
Taking down a zombie felt easier than chopping firewood. Gangrim searched the house, moving the flame here and there.
There was only one in the first house. But in the second, he caught three.
By the time he reached the fourth floor, he had repeatedly completed the mission, earning about 80 nyang soul pay additionally.
He had already nearly recovered the money spent on ‘Today’s Fortune.’
‘At this rate, I’ve already made back my investment.’
Gangrim thought, looking at the blazing goblin fires along the path he had taken. The goblin fires burned as if a fire had broken out, tracing his movements.
After using it so much, he could roughly grasp the usage and limitations of Bihyeong’s Eyes.
Bihyeong’s Eyes was incredibly useful.
Being able to see alone when the enemy can’t secure vision is a tremendous advantage.
But it seemed he couldn’t use it indefinitely.
The more he attached goblin fires, the more he felt something inside him becoming hollow.
It was hard to gauge exactly, but by the time he reached the fifth floor, he could noticeably feel the flames dimming.
Gangrim sent a text message to Yeomna through Bimang.
“Gangrim: I’m getting tired the more I use the goblin fire. What should I do?”
But there was no reply from Yeomna.
He was either busy or uninterested, but the answer came unexpectedly from Yu Wolryeong.
“Wolryeong: It’s because your spiritual power is being consumed.”
“Gangrim: You can see my messages?”
“Wolryeong: All of Reaper Ju Gangrim’s messages are set to be shared.”
“Wolryeong: It’s like a group chat.”
“Gangrim: Hmm, I see. But what is spiritual power?”
“Wolryeong: It’s like MP. If you consume too much spiritual power, your body’s recovery rate will slow down, so be careful. To recover, you can sleep or take spirit medicine, but for now, you can only conserve your strength.”
Spirit medicine. Spirit medicine…
Gangrim checked the store just in case, but there was nothing like that.
As Yu Wolryeong said, he had no choice but to use it sparingly.
Climbing floor after floor, Gangrim finally reached the last level without any particular twists.
Approaching the last house, Gangrim wondered if there was any meaning to this training.
He approached zombies standing blankly in the darkness, blew their heads off, then searched for more zombies to dispatch.
The soul pay coming in each time was decent, but it didn’t feel like he was really training.
‘Is it to regain my old instincts?’
If that was the case, he had already regained them to some extent while catching the enhanced zombie.
What remained was physical conditioning. But conditioning was a matter of time, nothing he could do immediately.
‘If not that, then is it to gather soul pay and get equipment?’
Thinking of it as a game grind made some sense. Thanks to that, Gangrim could hunt zombies with a feeling of killing slimes.
Gangrim opened the door to the last house, thinking about what to buy after clearing this place.
Thud.
The house on the fifth floor was quiet like the others.
Gangrim deliberately knocked on the door, thud thud, while attaching goblin fire. Zombie groans could be heard from inside.
‘The master bedroom.’
The bedroom door was closed. Gangrim carefully turned the handle and opened it.
A single zombie was standing blankly in the moonlight streaming through the window.
Gangrim thought he wouldn’t need to use goblin fire for just one and stepped forward.
The creature soon met Gangrim’s eyes.
“Gaaaah!”
It lunged at Gangrim. But as Gangrim stepped forward, he lightly swung his hand axe and blew off its head.
Thud.
The sound of the head falling was dull.
‘Unnecessarily sharp.’
The hand axe made from the Death Sword was incredibly keen. If he didn’t control his strength, it would cut through flesh and bone.
It felt as if the blade became sharper with each enemy it cut down.
“Ga, gaah, ga.”
Just then, Gangrim heard zombie groans.
As he looked around wondering if there were more zombies, Gangrim realized the groans were coming from inside the wardrobe.
Gangrim stood with a grim expression for a moment before carefully opening the wardrobe door.
There were three zombies inside the wardrobe.
Two young ones, about 13 and 11 years old, and one female zombie presumed to be their mother. They couldn’t see Gangrim backlit by the moonlight.
The biggest problem with zombie hunting is that it makes you consider the backstory of your targets. Gangrim could roughly guess what had happened.
Probably the father in the bedroom had turned into a zombie first, and the mother had taken the children to the bedroom for safety. But when the father burst in, they retreated to the wardrobe.
However, one or two of them had already been bitten by the father. In the end, the three must have turned into zombies after biting each other, unable to leave.
‘A common occurrence.’
A situation where an entire family is wiped out because they can’t abandon a family member who’s turned into a zombie.
Gangrim had too much experience to be sentimental about such things.
Gangrim cleared out all the zombies in the wardrobe too. He had long since graduated from ethical concerns about killing zombies in his early twenties.
But it wasn’t something you get used to either.
Gangrim neatly arranged the bodies and looked down at them. The zombies in this house were the last in this villa.
‘Rest in peace.’
Suddenly, Gangrim thought this training might not be what he had assumed.
It might not just be physical conditioning or sword skills, but training as a grim reaper.
It’s not about killing zombies for the purpose of cleaning up, nor is it about catching zombies with a game-like mentality to earn money.
The true duty of a grim reaper is to save those who have become zombies, unable to die and wandering the nine springs.
The moment he thought of it that way, all the hunting that had seemed tedious took on a completely different meaning.
And at that very instant, one of the stars embedded in the Death Sword he was holding began to glow brightly.
Before he could understand what this meant, Bimang vibrated and rang.
“The Death Sword takes note of your growth.”
“The Death Sword grants you permission for enhancement.”