MCAG Chapter 46

Episode 46

In the end, checking the rooms was a futile effort. As expected, all the rooms were completely empty. With no other choice, we went to the bathroom and rummaged through the cleaning supplies, where I found a mop handle. It was too long, thin, and light compared to a bat, making it not very suitable as a weapon. Still, it was better than nothing. Having something in my hand was better than going bare-handed.

“Have you ever swung something like a stick before?”

“Yes, I’ve had some light training.”

“Ah, you mentioned you exercise. Oh… you seem like you’d be good at handling it.”

I asked because the way she held the mop handle seemed unusual, and it turned out she had experience. I raised my evaluation of her a little and turned my gaze towards him.

“Open the door when you’re ready.”

“Okay. You stay as far back as possible.”

“Well… alright.”

Now that I had a special ability, it was hard to recklessly step forward. This wasn’t a game, but then again, it kind of was… Anyway, because of my healing ability, I had become a healer, so I had to stay back. A healer foolishly rushing to the front and getting killed was the stupidest move. To be honest, I had always played damage-dealing roles in games, so being a healer felt very awkward. I wanted to charge forward and quickly take out enemies, but instead, I had to stay back and just heal my teammates. It was too harsh. So, even though I was a healer, I had quite a few instances of rushing forward and getting scolded by my teammates. But since this was reality, I decided to faithfully stick to my role.

“Will you be okay, Ms. Ga-eun?”

“I’m a sports enthusiast. I’m confident in using my body. You should take care of yourself first, Ms. Ji-ah.”

I asked just in case, and she confidently replied, worrying about me instead. Feeling somewhat reassured by her response, I let out a small sigh of relief.

“Then, I’ll open the door.”

 

***

 

Contrary to our expectation that the enemy would be waiting outside the door, no one was on the emergency staircase. DNevertheless, we remained vigilant and checked each floor with great caution, but by the time we reached the first floor, we hadn’t encountered anything.

“Did they move to another floor?”

“Probably.”

I placed my hand on the door leading outside, just in case, but an invisible barrier prevented me from going out. I turned back with a resigned expression saying so, which seemed to surprise her as she had never seen this before.

“What is this?”

“We don’t know. But we’ve experienced this before, so we’re used to it.”

“It definitely wasn’t there when we came in…”

This invisible barrier only prevented people from going out, not from coming in. That’s why she could enter the hospital without any issues.

As we continued to talk lightly while remaining wary of our surroundings, a deafening wail suddenly echoed from the staircase as if to burst my ear drums. Due to the nature of the emergency staircase, the sound reverberated, making it even louder and reaching the first floor.

“What the hell is that?!”

“It’s definitely not from the second or third floor. So it must be coming from the upper floors or the basement?”

Soon after, the sound of many footsteps came from the staircase. Everyone tensed up and focused their attention on the emergency staircase. Just like the horde of zombies that the survivor had led earlier, an overwhelming number of zombies appeared before us once again.

“Why are there so many zombies in the basement?”

Even if all the bodies in the morgue had been reanimated, there shouldn’t be this many.

Where did these come from?!

I tightened my grip on the mop handle. Ready to swing it at any moment, I quickly scanned the surroundings. There had to be a reason why such a large number of zombies were moving at once. Either someone had caused a commotion like the survivor had, or that thing had awakened and led them here. My assumption was correct.

“Watch out for the ceiling!”

The main zombie, which had been hiding among the horde, had somehow climbed up to the first floor and was now clinging to the ceiling, glaring at us. It embedded its claws into the ceiling, clenched its fist, and broke through. It then threw the broken pieces towards us. I quickly raised my arm to shield my face from the flying debris and clicked my tongue.

Damn, that crazy zombie. Instead of syringes, it was now breaking walls and throwing debris. This was the epitome of brute force. As I lowered my arm, I saw that the zombie had already reached me. I rolled my body to the side to dodge the attack and picked up the mop handle I had dropped, swinging it at the zombie’s ankle. There was a thud, and the zombie stumbled and crouched down.

I was briefly relieved that the attack had worked, but I had to dodge the claws of the creature once again. A little while later, thanks to the shadow tiger coming to help, I was able to completely get away from the zombie.

“Phew…”

That was really close.

Just getting close to it made me feel overwhelmed by its immense killing intent, and its movements were too fast. There was no chance to attack, and even dodging was difficult. To make matters worse, there were regular zombies around, so if I didn’t pay attention, I might end up running into a regular zombie while trying to escape from the main zombie, essentially handing over my life.

But now that I was out of the zombie’s line of sight, I could finally take a breather. I swung the mop handle forcefully, smashing the heads of the regular zombies.

“Yeek!”

At that moment, I heard her scream. I quickly dealt with the nearest zombie and turned around to see her holding a broken mop handle, blood dripping from her left arm.

Seeing her like that, I desperately looked around for a way to help. I spotted a zombie in a wheelchair rolling around. As it passed by me, I jammed the mop handle between the wheels to stop it. The impact broke the end of the mop handle and gave me a slight shock, but I didn’t drop it. I kicked the zombie out of the wheelchair, smashed its head with the mop handle, and then forcefully pushed the remaining wheelchair towards the area where the main zombie was. The zombie, trying to avoid the wheelchair, moved away from her and soon spotted me, charging towards me.

Meanwhile, she regained her composure and, seeing the zombie, picked up a crutch that had fallen to the ground and swung it hard at the zombie. The zombie, hit directly on its right shoulder, let out a roar of pain, broke the crutch with its claws, and threw the fragments at her. She managed to dodge, but a fragment must have grazed her face, as blood trickled down her cheek.

If this continued, she would likely be the first to fall. As I ran towards her, a shadow suddenly appeared from behind and pounced on the main zombie. The zombie clawed at the shadow and turned its attention in that direction.

“Ms. Ga-eun, are you okay?!”

“I thought the claws were impressive, but I didn’t expect them to be this powerful.”

“Your arm…!”

Startled by the deep wound that exposed the bone, I tightly gripped her injured arm.

“Oof!”

“Ah, I’m sorry… Just a moment. I’ll heal you right away.”

I released the grip and concentrated. I was about to use my ability to heal her when suddenly, she grabbed my arm with her other hand and threw me aside.

“Agh!”

Unfortunately, I landed near the regular zombies, so I had no time to feel the pain. I quickly got into position and attacked the zombie.

Why did she throw me here…!

I glanced at the zombie in front of me with a mix of resentment and looked back at where she had been. Then, I saw the main zombie pinning her down. Horrified by the sight, I threw the mop handle at the zombie and frantically looked around for another weapon.

Just then, I saw Do-yoon fighting fiercely against the regular zombies near the emergency staircase. Despite having killed quite a few, zombies kept pouring out of the staircase. He had been trying to draw the main zombie’s attention from time to time, but I didn’t understand why he wasn’t engaging it properly. Now, I realized why. He was too busy dealing with the endless stream of zombies to help us. How were so many zombies continuously coming out from the basement?! In this state, it would be difficult to rely on his help. Moreover, both she and he looked like they were standing on the verge of a deadly line.

I couldn’t decide who to help first. As I hesitated for a moment, the main zombie’s claw pierced through her right shoulder. I had no choice but to run towards her.

“Ms. Ga-eun, I’m sorry!”

I picked up a nearby flowerpot and threw it at the zombie. It hit and broke, spilling soil over the zombie’s head. Unfortunately, it also covered her underneath. She struggled, likely because the soil got into her eyes, but there was nothing I could do. I had no weapon, and she was about to die. That was the only thing I could do.

“Kirrrr-!”

The zombie let out a strange scream and glared at me. Overwhelmed by its intense gaze, I flinched but didn’t back down. I glared back at it with wide eyes. What could I do by just glaring at it? Surprisingly, my provocation worked, and the zombie charged towards me.

I ran away as fast as I could. Dodging here and there, I threw everything I could get my hands on at the zombie. I even threw the computer and chairs around the desk.

Finally, the zombie seemed to tire too and started to stagger. I seized the opportunity and ran towards her.

“Give me your hand, quick!”

I grabbed her, who was still trying to get the soil out of her eyes, and poured as much power as I could into her. The wound began to heal rapidly before my eyes. If I continued a little longer, it would be completely healed. However, my vision changed suddenly, and I felt a tightness in my chest.

“Huff! Phew…”

In an instant, I was thrown away from her and slammed against the wall. I exhaled briefly and looked at the culprit that had dragged me. It was a wheelchair. The same wheelchair I had pushed towards the zombie earlier. I saw the zombie who used to be on it glaring at me from afar, breathing heavily. That guy really had a grudge. My right shoulder and back, which had hit the wall, were aching. If it had hit me directly… I didn’t even want to think about it.

As I rubbed the throbbing spots, I tried to use my ability on myself, knowing I couldn’t go in this state. However, despite pouring power into myself, there was no change.

No, couldn’t I use this ability on myself? Was self-healing not possible?

Now that I thought about it, it specifically said I could heal other people’s wounds, but it never mentioned that I could heal myself.

Wow. This was bad. The healer was injured and couldn’t self herself, the tank was injured and had only been half-healed, and the damage dealer was surrounded by zombies and could die the moment he let his guard down.

At that moment, the main zombie appeared before my eyes. It looked at me with bloodshot eyes. Before I could react, its grotesque arm started to approach my face.

F***, it was game over.