Immortals vs. Grim Reapers - chapter 5
Chapter 5: An Experienced Rookie (Part 2)
“……”
While Gangrim was at a loss for words, the sound of zombies responding to the noise could be heard.
Not all zombies react to sound. But some are particularly sensitive.
Two of the zombies standing in front of the emergency stairs began to stagger towards the noise.
‘No choice.’
Gangrim had no option but to hide in the darkness and wait for the zombies to pass.
After letting one pass by, the moment the second zombie entered the room, Gangrim swiftly thrust the broken IV stand into the zombie’s brainstem.
Though his body had weakened, years of accumulated experience hadn’t vanished.
Gangrim instantly pierced the narrow gap where the skull and spine connect.
Hearing the sound of the fallen zombie, the one that had gone ahead turned around.
“Ga, ack!”
The zombie charged at Gangrim with a horrific cry.
If it were the original Gangrim, he would have already smashed the second zombie’s head by the time he killed the first one. But now, even pulling out the improvised spear was difficult.
However, his ingrained combat skills reacted instinctively.
Gangrim swiftly grabbed the charging zombie and slammed it down. The zombie, planted headfirst into the floor, twitched slightly before going still.
“Phew……”
Having dispatched two zombies, Gangrim wiped the sweat dripping from his forehead.
He was drenched in sweat after dealing with just two zombies. He looked around to see if any other zombies were approaching, but there was no sign of movement.
‘Luckily, they were weak zombies.’
Perhaps because they were elderly zombies, their movements were sluggish and their durability was low.
Amidst all this, the smartphone vibrated with a ‘ding’ sound.
“Remaining soul pay: 4 nyang”
‘Soul pay?’
Gangrim noticed that the amount, which had previously shown 0 nyang, had increased.
“…Don’t tell me it’s for killing zombies?”
Come to think of it, Yeomna had mentioned giving a kind of currency that could only be used in the afterlife.
He didn’t expect it to pop up like this, as if killing monsters in a game.
Getting paid for killing zombies isn’t unheard of. There’s a reason why zombie hunter is a profession.
Zombies appear sporadically, making it difficult for the government to handle them all. So private zombie hunters are paid to deal with zombies that the military or police can’t handle.
Even if that weren’t the case, a substance called ‘black matter’ is extracted from the brains of people who have become zombies.
If this black matter isn’t extracted, there’s a chance that the zombie might revive due to the gate, even after being taken down.
Moreover, black matter is often traded at high prices as it can be used to suppress zombie plague symptoms or enhance the abilities of awakened ones.
‘They say private distribution is strictly prohibited, but it’s impossible to stop everything that happens under the table.’
Therefore, instead of feeling repulsed, Gangrim thought that similar things might be happening in the afterlife.
‘I guess they calculate per head since I’m a grim reaper now?’
Just as he was about to check how much value this soul pay had, a message arrived on the smartphone with a ‘ding’ sound.
“Yeomna: Finally turned it on.”
“Yeomna: On my way to Yu, might take some time.”
“Yeomna: (Cat running hard emoticon).”
“……”
Gangrim thought that grim reapers should have a more serious setting.
After all, he was setting out to hunt Immortals, risking his remaining life, no, risking infinity.
Then another message came from Yeomna.
“Yeomna: They say even rolling in a dog poop field is better than the afterlife, so warm up by rolling around a bit.”
And a new message popped up.
It was a different window from Yeomna’s messages.
“Mission: Report for Duty”
“Objective: Hunt Zombies (2/5)”
“Reward 1: A sense of fulfillment as a grim reaper”
“Reward 2: 25 nyang soul pay”
Gangrim finally found the reply window.
“Gangrim: Is this the phone you gave me, Lord Yeomna?”
“Yeomna: Yep, it’s called Bimang, standard issue for rookies. Use it carefully.”
“Yeomna: For messages, you don’t need to type them out one by one. Just touch Bimang and your thoughts will be automatically input.”
“Yeomna: The real name is Chasaphone, but no one calls it that.”
Chasaphone… truly an appalling naming sense that only a bureaucratic society could come up with. And since Yeomna is at the apex of afterlife power, this lowbrow naming sense must be his too.
Gangrim clicked his tongue and placed his hand on Bimang. As Yeomna said, Gangrim’s thoughts were instantly input as text.
Fortunately, it seemed unlikely to make mistakes as you had to think about sending once more before it actually transmitted.
“Gangrim: Chasaphone is indeed a cool and sensible name.”
“Gangrim: But where can I use this soul pay?”
“Yeomna: Here and there. You’ll need it a lot for work.”
“Yeomna: Lots of uses, so don’t waste it on weird stuff. Ask Yu when she gets here.”
“Gangrim: If it’s needed for work, why don’t you just give me some?”
“Yeomna: If each and every grim reaper focuses on their work with the mindset that they are the owner of the company, we can achieve our goals.”
“Gangrim: Your words are most wise.”
Seeing the sudden change in tone, it was clear he had copied and pasted from somewhere. Gangrim wondered if there was some kind of response manual.
There was no further reply from Yeomna after that.
Instead of waiting for unnecessary replies, Gangrim thought that this soul pay was literally a currency concept.
Wondering if there might be something useful in the smartphone, he examined what functions Bimang had.
Bimang could make calls, send messages, take photos, and even install applications just like a normal smartphone.
However, there were some notable apps among those pre-installed.
“Store”, “Upgrade”, “Abilities”, “Messages”, “Inventory”… There were all sorts of tabs, but staring at the bright red smartphone screen was starting to hurt his eyes.
‘Whoever designed this insane interface must be a red color fetishist. I’d like to dye their eyes red.’
Judging that none of the tabs were immediately helpful, Gangrim clicked on the Inventory tab.
It displayed the items Gangrim currently possessed.
“Patient gown, Slippers, Chasaphone, Improvised spear (low grade), Four Tiger Sword”
He thought it might be an inventory function, but it simply displayed the items he was carrying.
Gangrim focused on the last item listed.
‘Four Tiger Sword?’
It was an item he wasn’t currently holding. At least not visibly.
But Gangrim wasn’t an ordinary person; he was an awakened one who had crossed over to the afterlife and back. Even among awakened ones, there were those who could pull objects out of thin air.
‘So that means I do have the Four Tiger Sword, but…’
Would it appear if he called for it mentally?
Gangrim imagined himself reaching into the air and earnestly calling for something, like in movies or comics. But nothing happened.
Gangrim was glad no one was around to see him.
“Gaaak!”
However, at that moment, Gangrim realized there was an unexpected audience.
A zombie, probably drawn by the sound, was standing blankly at the entrance.
With his position completely exposed, Gangrim had no choice but to face the zombie head-on.
“Gaaaaaaak!”
“You son of a bitch.”
To make matters worse, the zombie let out a noise that echoed through the corridor.
There are occasionally zombies like this. Ones that emit a cry that attracts nearby zombies.
It’s not exactly an enhanced zombie, but these mutant individuals are why zombies sometimes form groups.
Thump thump thump.
He could feel several more zombies from the corridor coming. Probably the ones from in front of the emergency stairs.
He couldn’t face three zombies at once with a broken aluminum rod.
Just then, Bimang rang.
“Yeomna: What, you still haven’t summoned the Four Tiger Sword?”
“Yeomna: That’s because you’re just thinking ‘Four Tiger Sword, come out, yah’ without any real thought.”
“Yeomna: Think of a concrete image. The Four Tiger Sword is always in your hand, anywhere, anytime.”
“Yeomna: Try to recall the weapon that feels most familiar to you.”
The Four Tiger Sword is always in my hand. Recall the weapon that feels most familiar.
Gangrim repeated these messages in his mind.
‘The weapon that feels most familiar?’
Gangrim tried to recall the weapon most familiar to him in his life.
In situations with limited supplies, it was impossible to kill zombies one by one with guns. Bombs were out of the question.
So soldiers often had to use primitive weapons.
He had never been picky about weapons. Spears, swords, axes, even pencils or whips.
He knew how to handle all weapons to some extent, but the most familiar weapon was ‘that’ one.
“Damn it!”
With the zombie charging, there was no time for lengthy contemplation. Gangrim swung as soon as he felt something grip his hand.
Crack.
With a sound like chopping wood, the zombie’s head split in half. Gangrim roughly shook off the zombie.
Suddenly, his right hand was holding a hand axe about the length of his arm. Gangrim looked down at the hand axe with a bitter smile.
Apart from the dark blue color with twinkling stars like constellations, it matched exactly the appearance of the weapon he had found most useful in his zombie hunter days.
“Ga, aaaaaak!”
The zombies began to charge with horrific cries. But the moment he gripped the hand axe, Gangrim had already returned to his zombie hunter days.
Whoosh, Gangrim lightly twirled the hand axe to shake off the blood, then instantly blew off the top of the charging zombie’s head.
Next, he kicked and broke the knee of the approaching zombie, then brought the axe down on its lowered head.
And for the third zombie that followed, he uppercutted its jaw with the handle, created some distance, and immediately brought the axe down on its forehead.
“Phew……”
It took less than 5 seconds to subdue three zombies. A speed difficult even for professional zombie hunters to achieve.
Sweat began to soak his body belatedly, but it was simply a matter of lacking stamina.
After all, the moment he gripped the hand axe, even his tension had disappeared.
“The experience of cleaving thousands of zombies doesn’t just go away.”
Unconsciously, Gangrim examined the split heads of the zombies. It was to extract the black matter.
Black matter was essential both for preventing the zombie plague and for enhancing the abilities of awakened ones.
“Huh?”
But Gangrim couldn’t find any black matter.
Normally, there should have been a bead-like crystal inside the head, but it was just an ordinary zombie brain.
A slightly dried gray mass.
Gangrim was worried he might have killed some strange person who looked like a zombie when he noticed a black lump stuck to the hand axe.
‘Black matter?’
The black matter stuck to the hand axe like it was melting, then seeped inside.
It seemed that the moment he killed a zombie, it seeped inside without needing to be extracted separately.
‘Is this also a function of the Four Tiger Sword?’
Just then, Bimang rang.
“Mission ‘Report for Duty’ completed”
“Objective: Hunt Zombies (5/5)”
“Choose your reward.”
“Reward 1: ★A sense of fulfillment that a rookie grim reaper should choose with spirit★”
“Reward 2: 25 nyang soul pay”
The reward details seemed to have changed in the meantime, but Gangrim ignored it and pressed reward 2.
In his experience, spirit, fulfillment, and passion were acronyms for “I will exploit you and work you to the bone until you become disillusioned with human affairs.”
Ding.
Bimang displayed 35 nyang soul pay.
‘If I received 25 nyang as a reward, and assuming a normal zombie gives 2 nyang, that adds up.’
Come to think of it, Gangrim recalled looking at the ‘Store’ tab in Bimang earlier. With 35 nyang, he could buy the item he had his eye on.
Gangrim clicked on the Store tab and chose the item he wanted.
“Goblin Lantern”
“Secures vision in darkness visible only to oneself. The light is visible only to those with spiritual perception and cannot be seen by ordinary people. 20 nyang soul pay.”
He figured it was basically a flashlight only he could see.
When a gate opens, the sky usually darkens, so securing vision is extremely important. And it’s a light only he can see, no less.
Considering the path Gangrim had to take from now on, it was an undeniably useful item.
Gangrim bought the Goblin Lantern and looked around to see if he could do anything else.
But he was short on money to do anything else right now. That’s when a message arrived.
“Yeomna: Yeomna takes note of your achievements.”
“Gangrim: What kind of concept line is that?”
“Yeomna: I saw this in novels kids read these days. Don’t you guys like this kind of thing?”
‘I get what he’s saying, but normally system messages aren’t manually input like this.’
“Gangrim: As expected, Lord Yeomna, you have the foresight to willingly keep up with the trends of the times.”
“Yeomna: Hoho, call me the Constellation Yama-raja of Hell.”
“Gangrim: Constellation Yama-raja of Hell, I’m grateful for your great interest in me, but I’m worried I might be wasting your time…”
Gangrim couldn’t bring himself to say that getting attention from the highest superior was burdensome and he wished they would just go away.
“Yeomna: Just call me Yeomna for short. And well, it’s exciting in the beginning anyway.”
“Yeomna: Later, you’ll probably be crying and begging me to pay attention to you.”