BLOODY FEST (1)
The survivors in Ulsan often lived together in shared spaces.
It wasn't like apartments where everyone had their own private rooms—it was more like military barracks, a communal lifestyle.
Hundreds of people had gathered inside the indoor gymnasium of Ulsan Sports Complex, each claiming a spot to sleep with whatever they could find—sleeping bags, blankets, or similar.
The conditions were harsh, straight out of a disaster movie, but there was no other choice.
Water, electricity, and gas had all been cut off, and so the very idea of "home" had lost most of its meaning.
"No-beom, Ho-beom, wake up."
Lee Ho-beom, wrapped up in a lucky find of a military blanket and lying on the cold gym floor, frowned at the familiar voice waking him.
"Ugh, what now?"
It was his childhood friend of the same age, Choi Do-yeon.
Even though this was communal living, men and women were mixed freely because there was simply no capacity to enforce any kind of separation.
Minor issues like gender segregation took a backseat to the immediate and urgent goal of survival.
With a serious look, Choi Do-yeon said, "Come with me to the bathroom."
"Do-yeon, seriously? Can't you go by yourself?" "Come on, don't be like that. I'm scared." "Ugh..."
Lee Ho-beom sighed but got up.
There were rumors of perverts, and besides, I kind of needed to pee too.
Do-yeon smiled sweetly.
"Thanks. You're the best, Ho-beom." "Let's go."
The two of them left the gym.
There was a public restroom inside, but of course, it was unusable now with all the plumbing down.
Instead, people had started using the flower beds outside—overgrown with trees and grass—as makeshift toilets. As they approached, the stench of human waste filled the air.
Even though everyone was supposed to relieve themselves inside the flower beds, many had done it right on the asphalt or along the sidewalks, leaving filth scattered around.
"Let's finish quick and get out of here." "...Ho-beom."
"What?"
"...I gotta do number two." "Oh, damn."
"Keep a lookout for me!"
Watching her slip behind a tree, Ho-beom sighed again and picked the least filthy flowerbed for himself.
"Hey! You done yet?" "Almost!"
Choi Do-yeon returned looking visibly relieved. "Whew. That's the first good dump I've had in days." "Gross. You clean up okay?"
"Yeah! I brought wet wipes just for this."
She was speaking cheerfully at first, but her mood soon dropped. "How long are we gonna have to live like this?"
Ho-beom knew the answer.
Probably for the rest of our lives.
The comfortable days of the past were gone for good.
Things would only get worse. They certainly wouldn't get better.
Though he said nothing, Do-yeon could read it in his eyes and lowered her head.
"This is so depressing."
"By the way, we're supposed to go fetch water again tomorrow. Supplies are short, they said..."
Ho-beom tried to steer the conversation in a lighter direction, but it didn't help much.
"Another rough day ahead, huh." "Yeah..."
In a way, the survivors in Ulsan were considered lucky.
There was the Taehwa River right nearby—a major water source.
They had a basic filtration setup using charcoal and sand at one end of the gym. It wasn't perfect, but it made the river water drinkable.
The purified water would be bottled into plastic containers and distributed to the other survivor groups in the complex.
So the people gathered in the gym were basically handling the water supply for everyone else.
"Hey, Ho-beom." "Yeah?"
"Don't you want to die?"
Ho-beom looked at her with a bitter expression. Do-yeon kept her tone bright, strangely enough.
"I mean, what's the point of all this? Scraping by like this, barely surviving. So why don't we just die together?"
Everyone here, including Choi Do-yeon, was dealing with some form of mental breakdown.
Ho-beom and Do-yeon had already seen multiple suicides among the survivors—more than once.
And one of them had been Do-yeon's own mother. "Do-yeon..."
Ho-beom couldn't finish the sentence. She leaned into his arms.
From within his embrace, she whispered, "Or... could you kill me instead?"
At some point, Do-yeon had started crying. "You like me, don't you?"
"Please... do something, Ho-beom. Anything."
As she pleaded through her tears, Ho-beom imagined himself kissing her. A surge of desire swept through him—the urge to hold her, to give in.
To kill her, as she asked, and then follow her into death... maybe it wasn't such a bad idea.
I really am losing it.
He realized just how crazy he had become—just as much as the girl standing in front of him.
As he gently held her to comfort her, he struggled to keep that dark impulse buried deep inside.
It was at that moment. "Kyaaaaah!"
A piercing scream rang out from the gym.
At first, I thought someone was having a seizure again. But then—
"Aaagh!"
"Run!"
"It's a v-vampire!"
People came pouring out of the gym, and it quickly became clear this wasn't just a medical emergency.
And then— "Graaaargh!"
A monster emerged, following behind the fleeing crowd.
It was a head taller than an average adult man, its entire body drenched in red. Without hesitation, it grabbed a nearby person and sank its teeth into their neck.
"S-someone help...!"
Lee Hobum froze on the spot at the sight. 'T-That's a vampire?'
Something felt off.
Lee Hobum had seen a vampire before.
He could never forget the creature that took his parents right in front of his eyes.
'That thing?'
But the vampire he remembered didn't look like that monster.
The vampires he knew looked so normal they could pass as any ordinary person.
And yet— "Kyahhhh—!"
The monster in front of him only shared one trait: it drank blood.
Its massive body and crimson skin were more reminiscent of a demon than any vampire he had known.
Splat!
And it didn't even seem like blood was its goal.
Unlike the vampire that had taken its time draining his parents, this creature only bit the neck for a moment before ripping it open with its fangs and lunging at the next target.
"Aaagh!"
The monster's claws and teeth tore through human flesh like paper. It wasn't feeding—it was slaughtering.
Its purpose seemed to be nothing more than killing as many people as possible.
Lee Hobum's instincts screamed at him. 'If I stay here, I'll die!'
If he wanted to live— 'I have to run!'
He had to get out of there, fast.
Lee Hobum grabbed Choi Doyeon's wrist and tried to flee. But—
"Hey! What are you doing?!"
Choi Doyeon was frozen in place, staring at the monster.
All she could manage was to take a few shaky steps in the direction Hobum was pulling her.
"Snap out of it! You wanna die?!"
At his yelling, Choi Doyeon replied with a face on the verge of tears. "M-My legs..."
She didn't look like someone who had accepted death.
She looked like any ordinary person paralyzed with fear in the face of it. "Damn it!"
Lee Hobum hoisted Choi Doyeon onto his back and started running. But he didn't get far—
"Grrrrrr!"
Another vampire appeared.
Not the one from the gym—a different one, cutting them off from another direction.
'It's over.'
Time seemed to slow as the giant monster's jaws closed in on his neck. At that moment, sensing the inevitability of death—
Boom!
Something exploded. "Urgh!"
Lee Hobum fell hard on his backside.
Choi Doyeon, who had been on his back, hit the ground and trembled.
Lee Hobum slowly wiped away the pieces of vampire flesh that had splattered onto his face.
Then he looked ahead.
Where the massive vampire had just stood, only a headless corpse now lay, and in the asphalt nearby, a spear flickering with black flames was lodged firmly in the ground.
"A spear...†"
He stared blankly at it, and before long, a man pulled the spear out. "...What is this†"
There was an air of mystery around the man.
It wasn't just because he had taken down the monster in a single blow.
Even without knowing anything, anyone would've immediately sensed that he was different from ordinary people.
"Ah!"
It didn't take long for Lee Hobum, who had always been sharp-eyed, to figure out why.
"He's too clean."
Hair that wasn't greasy or tangled. Clothes spotless, not a single stain.
He looked like someone who had come from a world before the vampires appeared—utterly clean.
As if he took warm showers every day.
At that moment, the man looked around at the surrounding survivors and said something strange.
"If you spot a mouse, follow it." With those words, the man left.
As they watched his figure shrink rapidly into the distance—at a speed that didn't seem human—Lee Hobum thought:
"What kind of nonsense is that†"
It was such a bizarre thing to say that he couldn't even come up with a response.
But then—
"Th-there! A mouse!"
A mouse actually appeared.
Squeak—
It ran along the path, then stopped briefly and turned around. Its posture seemed to be telling the people to follow it.
While everyone just stared blankly, Lee Hobum picked up Choi Doyeon and stood behind the mouse.
Squeak—
Confirming he was following, the mouse began to run again.
Lee Hobum chased after it, and soon, the other survivors began to follow him.
[An individual meeting the criteria for citizenship has approached the
home base area.]
[Would you like to offer citizenship?]
There were no vampires among the newly joining people. Naturally so.
Every vampire was currently transforming into a monster and going berserk.
The frenzy that started in the vampire zone south of the Taehwa River had already reached the vampires hiding among the survivors across the bridge.
By now, all vampires across Ulsan were in a full rampage. "Grant them citizenship."
The moment the vampires started to go wild, he had no choice but to act immediately.
First, he dealt with the vampires hidden among the survivor groups.
Then, he guided all the remaining survivors through the chaos to this Homeplus location.
As a result, thousands of new survivors were now joining. "We're running out of space."
It was impossible to fit all the survivors from Ulsan into this small Homeplus
store.
"I'll have to send some to Seomyeon." There was only one way.
To use the Gate of the Absolute One skill.
But the Gate of the Absolute One wasn't all-powerful.
While it was open, it drained a massive amount of mental energy, and there was a limit to how many survivors could be sent to Seomyeon in a limited time.
To make things worse, there was no telling when or where the vampire leader might appear.
Just keeping track of the scattered subordinates' status in real time was already overwhelming.
"There's no helping it."
He needed to ease the burden, even a little.
"I'll have to use skill points."
There were two options.
The Eye of the Absolute One and The Gate of the Absolute One. He had to choose one to upgrade.
[Are you sure you want to upgrade the home base's Gate of the Absolute One skill†]
"...Yeah."
Vwooom!
[The Gate of the Absolute One skill at the home base has been upgraded to Lv. 2.]
IF YOU WANT TO BUY THE REST OF THE CHAPTERS IN ONE GO, YOU CAN USE OUR DISCOUNT CODE : USI15
[T/L: Read extra chapters on my ko-fi page "Pokemon1920" : https://ko-fi.com/pokemon1920 ]