Immortals vs. Grim Reapers - chapter 28
Chapter 28. You Will Die (4)
“Ah, did I say something impolite?”
Han Min-ah fell into brief contemplation, as if trying to correct her words.
“Energy… no, I’m not sure what to call this. What should I call it? The aura emanating from you, Mr. Gangrim? Atmosphere? Stand? Anyway, it looks quite bad.”
“What’s a Stand?”
“Oh, you don’t know about Stands. It’s like an avatar that exerts a kind of superpower, you can think of it as a manifestation of a person’s soul.”
At the mention of soul, Kang-rim closely observed Han Min-ah for a moment.
Can she see souls?
Even Kang-rim, who could see ghosts before becoming a Grim Reaper, had never seen the soul of a living person.
Moreover, for a soul to be covered in wounds…
“Are you saying you can see my soul?”
“Oh, does it sound plausible when I say soul? To be precise, I should say I can see wounds… I’ve only seen souls this wounded in isolation camps… But you look healthy, Mr. Kang-rim? You don’t seem to be a zombie either?”
Kang-rim had never thought about his own soul.
Of course, Wol-ryeong had told Kang-rim that the master of the flesh is the spirit, and that a Grim Reaper won’t die as long as the spirit is safe.
But it’s not like you can see your spirit by looking in a mirror, so he had no idea what it looked like.
“Which part has the worst wound?”
Kang-rim asked, trying to appear unfazed. Han Min-ah responded without hesitation, tapping her neck.
“Here.”
Kang-rim was about to laugh, having no memory of injuring his neck, but then froze. He had only one memory of injuring his neck.
Before his regression, when Gerald broke his neck.
Kang-rim miraculously survived then, but was left unable to move his body properly.
With a body incapable of resistance, he was ultimately brutally killed by zombies.
Han Min-ah frowned slightly as she tapped various spots.
“Here, here, here, and here too. It’s no joke. Wow, I can’t believe a person can live with this much damage.”
Kang-rim laughed softly.
The fact that she didn’t mention the other areas where he’d been shot or had bones broken suggested she was indeed only talking about wounds to the soul. And those wounds seemed to have not yet healed.
Then Han Min-ah reached out and began to caress the back of Gangrim ‘s hand.
“Hmm, normally I only use this for wound healing, but…”
And once again, a soft light began to leak from Han Min-ah’s arm where the bite mark was engraved.
There was no change to Gangrim ‘s hand, which had no wounds to begin with, but after a moment, Han Min-ah wiped away sweat and removed her hand.
“Well, it was a small wound, so it healed right away.”
“…A small wound?”
“Yes. Among the visible wounds, it was the smallest.”
“…Is this the healing ability?”
“Yes. After healing like this, the wound recovery speed increases, though slowly. That’s why I received a C-rank assessment, but when I say I can heal souls, I don’t get much positive feedback.”
That’s natural, of course.
For ordinary people, no matter how strong the spirit becomes, it’s over when the flesh dies. It’s natural to prioritize immediate healing abilities.
Most people would have ambiguous thoughts about even the existence of souls in the first place.
Gangrim clenched and unclenched his hand.
It felt a bit more refreshed than before, but he didn’t notice any significant change.
No, perhaps that change might be noticeably felt when using abilities or recovering from wounds.
‘But my soul is covered in wounds?’
Grim Reapers value the power of the spirit more than the flesh. If so, Gangrim might not be using his full power even now.
“Ms. Han Min-ah, are you currently working at a hospital?”
“No. With a wound like this, I don’t think any hospital will accept me for a while.”
Han Min-ah said, showing the wound on her arm with the clear bite mark. Gangrim thought this might be for the best.
“Actually, I work at a place like this. Would you be interested in working together?”
Gangrim handed Han Min-ah a business card. Han Min-ah received the card and narrowed her eyes.
Gangrim had essentially just proposed that she become a zombie hunter.
A job that risks your life, has poor social treatment, and is unlikely to expect high income.
But Gangrim was determined to bring Han Min-ah in no matter what conditions she might set.
An ability to heal souls? He’d never heard of such a thing.
There might be others besides Han Min-ah, but finding them would be difficult in itself.
Moreover, what if Han Min-ah went over to the immortals instead? He wanted to avoid such a terrible situation.
“If you’re curious about the conditions…”
“Sounds good.”
“Pardon?”
“I’ve been interested in zombie hunters for a while. In fact, they’re the true front line fighting for humanity at the risk of their lives. Rather than waiting for patients in the back, being out there directly might save more people.”
Gangrim was momentarily taken aback.
“It seems you should have served as a combat medic rather than working at a nursing home.”
“I originally applied to nursing officer school. I didn’t make it due to my grades.”
“If you had succeeded, you’d have been a nursing officer, not a combat medic… But why do you want to heal? Not hunt zombies?”
“Huh? Isn’t it obvious?”
Han Min-ah spoke as if asking why he would ask such an obvious question.
“Zombies are patients too. There’s nothing we can do right now, but if we combine treatment of zombie hunters with research on the front lines, we might find a way to cure the plague.”
Gangrim felt a chill down his spine at Han Min-ah’s enthusiastic tone. And he understood why his mother said she wouldn’t want her as a daughter-in-law.
In his memory, no one who said “zombies are people too” had ever been helpful.
‘This could be a bit of a headache.’
“Um…”
Just then, Han Min-ah spoke while biting her spoon.
“Yes?”
“If it’s still valid to set conditions…”
“Ah, yes. Go ahead.”
“I’m sorry, but I think we need to order more gopchang jeongol? I’ve eaten it all.”
Gangrim ‘s gaze turned to the hot pot. Somehow, most of the three portions of jeongol they had ordered were already empty.
Gangrim, who hadn’t even finished his first bowl, stared blankly at the pot before ordering two more portions.
***
“Han Min-ah, you mean that nurse?”
“Yes. Didn’t you know?”
The next day, as soon as Wol-ryeong arrived at the hotel room, Gangrim reported about Han Min-ah.
Wol-ryeong seemed to know nothing about Han Min-ah.
“Soul healing abilities are often found in the afterlife, but this is the first I’ve seen in the mortal realm.”
“What rank would it be?”
“We’d have to check the extent of her healing ability, but let’s say S to A rank.”
Like a gacha addict, she immediately came up with a rank.
“Such a rare ability user, and you didn’t know?”
“Rather, I’d like to ask why you thought I would know.”
“Well…”
Because Grim Reapers have many eyes and followers, and Yeomna even has the ability to regress?
But thinking about it, it seems they all don’t know much for having regressed together.
If they had watched such a messed-up world together, they should be able to tell who’s an immortal and who’s not just by observing, but it felt like most of it was left to Gangrim.
‘Is this also bound by the rules of the afterlife?’
“Soul healers themselves are rare, but even when they exist, they’re hard to find in the mortal realm. People around them don’t understand, and they themselves remain unaware, so they end up buried.”
Indeed, Han Min-ah’s ability was only being assessed as a C-rank ability that merely accelerates regeneration. It was inevitable that such a difficult-to-understand power would be undervalued.
Then Wol-ryeong, after pondering deeply, spoke with a disapproving expression.
“If it’s true, she’s a valuable talent, but there’s something off about this Han Min-ah.”
“Why? Doesn’t she seem like a good person?”
“Being too good of a person is the problem. She lacks caution compared to the power she possesses. People with heads full of flowers like this are usually the first to die on the front lines.”
Well, Han Min-ah was already dead in Gangrim ‘s past life. Moreover, this time she was bitten by a zombie even with Gangrim by her side.
If she didn’t have the ability to resist the zombie plague, she would have been a dead person this time too.
“For now, we’ll handle Han Min-ah at our company. We can’t let her fall into the wrong hands, so it’s right to keep her close. More importantly, we’ve received intelligence about the Necromancy General.”
“Finally.”
Wol-ryeong sprinkled something like white powder in her hand.
Gangrim rubbed some of the powder between his fingers and soon frowned at the sweet scent spreading from his fingers.
“Shine Sand?”
“You know it.”
“I can’t not know the drug that stayed with humanity until its last days.”
Shine Sand. A new type of foreign drug.
Gangrim couldn’t forget it as it was a drug that constantly circulated among refugees despite his efforts to eradicate it.
It was also something he could never understand where it came from and how it spread when most of humanity had fallen. Then suddenly, a thought struck Gangrim.
“No, wait. Don’t tell me?”
“Yes. It’s the drug the Necromancy General is distributing.”
Gangrim felt like he’d been hit on the back of the head.
Even as humanity was being wiped out by zombies, these crazy immortals were spreading drugs to addict humanity.
“No, why? Did they want to make some petty cash by spreading drugs?”
“If it were just that, it would be better, but it’s not.”
Wol-ryeong said, scattering the Shine Sand in the air.
“Shine Sand is a catalyst for creating ghouls.”
“……”
Gangrim hoped he had misheard. No, he hoped he had misheard.
“You become a ghoul if you get addicted to Shine Sand?”
“Not immediately, it requires a certain level of overconsumption. At the level of an addict.”
Wol-ryeong continued calmly.
“But it would be troublesome if people became ghouls anywhere. The Necromancy General spread Shine Sand among refugees to addict them.”
“To draw in people looking for more as members of the Necromancy Faction?”
“Correct. Fortunately, due to its low purity and many impurities, it requires quite a large dose. Then, while using them as members of the organization, they addict them to more Shine Sand. After thoroughly exploiting their money and bodies, they use them as ghouls after death.”
“These bastards… What purpose could they have for going to such lengths?”
Wol-ryeong pondered, as if searching for an appropriate analogy, before speaking.
“The Necromancy General… wants to become king, they say.”
“What?”
Gangrim was dumbfounded.
A king in this day and age? While leading a gang organization?
But thinking again, the beginnings of royal dynasties in any country were close to organized crime or military cliques.
Considering that the world would fall into anarchy in the future, it wasn’t impossible.
“Not a drug king or pirate king, but an actual king?”
“To be precise, he claims to be the one and only legitimate successor of the Joseon Empire’s bloodline and that he will exercise his rightful authority to become king.”
“Is he insane?”
“Most people who say similar things are. But the question isn’t whether the Necromancy General is crazy or not, but whether he has the ability to carry out his crazy talk, isn’t it?”
Wol-ryeong said, scrolling through something on her memo.
“The abundant free labor provided by ghouls, the armaments left behind by the U.S. military, the profits from distributing Shine Sand, the territory of northern Seoul that has become lawless. He’s meeting quite a few conditions. He’s even gathering overseas collaborators, apparently. It seems he’s already engaging in diplomacy.”
Gangrim pondered briefly before asking incredulously.
“So you’re saying this is an attempt to play at running his own country?”
“Money and power. Aren’t they the most motivating factors for humans in the world?”
He was a terrifyingly selfish sociopath.
It seemed that when an ordinary person with one-dimensional desires acquires the ability of immortality, power, and knowledge, this is what they become.
Gangrim, who had seen the future where Gates cover the entire sky and zombies cover the entire land, knew how insane this plan was.
But the problem was that it might sound appealing to people backed into a corner, especially refugees who had escaped from northern Seoul.
A world where zombies are allies, not enemies.
They could even return to their hometowns and become pioneers of a new era.
“At this moment, I honestly want to cheer for Gerald.”
He could understand why Gerald had pulverized this madman.
No matter how much of a bastard Gerald was, he at least knew that the current situation was a crisis for humanity.
But Gangrim couldn’t side with Gerald even if it killed him.
If the Necromancy General was someone who deserved to be torn apart, it should be by his own hands. There was no time to leisurely leave it to another enemy.
“Have you found out where he is?”
“We haven’t pinpointed his location yet, but…”
Just as Gangrim was about to feel disappointed, Wol-ryeong continued.
“We’ve identified several distribution points for Shine Sand.”
At her words, Gangrim smiled.
“To find the rat, we’ll have to burn down his shabby hut first.”