I'm a young god, won't you raise me?

Chapter 18: Chapter 18

I’d seen it in games before — the setting where Je Hyun-oh’s vocal cords mutated until they didn’t sound human anymore.

But knowing about it and actually hearing it were two different things. Goosebumps rose on my skin before I could stop them.

I forced my frozen brain to move.

How did he know?

This was unexpected.

Je Hyun-oh’s fingers twitched as he waited for my answer. The sound of metal scraping against metal rang out.

Listening to that wordless threat, I slowly opened my mouth.

"I—"

Tap.

A pointed fingertip touched my chest.

Through the thin fabric, I felt the sharpness of metal. One little push and it would pierce straight through my heart.

The positioning made Je Hyun-oh’s intentions very clear.

One useless lie, and I’d be dead.

So I dropped the lies and told the truth.

"I sent it to you, Lieutenant Colonel-nim. Telling you to stay put."

A System window appeared before Je Hyun-oh.

I’d like to clear together, with a True Ending.

It was the Message I’d sent.

Je Hyun-oh stared at the System window.

I swallowed quietly.

The tension made every hair on my body stand on end, but thankfully the darkness of night hid the goosebumps rising on my cheeks.

I tweaked my original Operation 1 — "Pretend It’s a Quest" — and switched to "Convince Him Through the System Window."

How do you like this useful and capable Trainee?

Starting with an interesting hook, I quickly typed out the Message.

1. A Trainee who can communicate freely within the Trial through the System window!

2. A Trainee who knows the Trial’s strategies and item usage that even Samra doesn’t!

3. A Trainee who can stop Lieutenant Colonel-nim when he attacks Captain Kwak and Captain Mo!

Trust me, and I promise you a comfortable, fast Trial closure, Lieutenant Colonel-nim.

I added a bit of threat at the end.

At this rate, the clear will fail and everyone will become zombies.

I could picture Mo Haein and Kwak Hanmuk looking confused, wondering why I wasn’t saying anything if I was supposed to be persuading him.

From their perspective, it probably looked like Je Hyun-oh and I were just standing there in silence, facing each other.

But I’m persuading him as hard as I can, Captain-nims.

I studied Je Hyun-oh, quietly hoping he’d let it slide at this point.

The contents should have been interesting enough for someone like him.

He always focused on clearing Trials quickly. No matter what Trial he was thrown into, he never took more than a week to clear it.

But even my desperate appeal of usefulness got no reaction from Je Hyun-oh.

The metal hand was still resting on my chest.

I pulled out my final card — the one I’d wanted to save until the very end.

I also know about .

About the Trial that had turned Je Hyun-oh into an infected — <Zero>.

I held my breath and waited for his reaction.

^ ^

A moment later, a smiling emoticon appeared on his goggles.

I froze, not knowing what it meant — and then a guttural whisper followed.

"Pretty damn cocky..."

That short phrase, like it had crawled up from the abyss, told me everything I needed to know.

I’m screwed.

Operation 1 was a complete failure.

"Captain Kwak-nim!"

I ran, shouting for Kwak Hanmuk.

The Bead Rosary yanked me upward, sending my body flying through the air. At the same time, the jeep that had been waiting at a distance floored the accelerator.

The jeep shot forward, engine roaring, and my body landed on the spare tire mounted on its rear.

Sitting on the spare tire, bound by the rosary, I looked back toward where Je Hyun-oh was.

He was too far away now, swallowed by the darkness.

But I couldn’t relax. He’d catch up in an instant, no doubt.

The jeep raced across potholed, cracked, uneven asphalt that hadn’t been maintained in ages. Every time it hit a rock and bounced, my body jolted up and down with it.

"Captain Mo-nim, you need to come out now—!"

"I know, Trainee."

A pale hand shot out the window and grabbed the car frame with a clunk.

Mo Haein pulled herself up onto the roof.

Her zombification was progressing, which meant her strength was much greater — she could climb onto the roof of a moving car without issue. But to keep her from being blown off by the speed, Kwak Hanmuk held her feet with his Bead Rosary.

Mo Haein stared into the darkness for a moment, then drew the Black Moon Blade.

But her spear wasn’t aimed behind us, where Je Hyun-oh was chasing — it pointed straight ahead, at the front of the jeep.

Mo Haein thumped the car with her blade, and the rosary binding my waist tightened, wrapping around my arms too.

I looked like a hostage taken by armed forces.

Bound tight, I stared at what was behind the jeep — which, from my perspective, was ahead.

The noise drew zombies, but they couldn’t keep up with the car’s speed.

The jeep blasted through the Yellow Zone in the blink of an eye, raced through the Red Zone, and finally entered the Dead Zone.

The moment we entered, Dead Zombies swarmed us like mad.

Unlike regular zombies, Dead Zombies could even catch up with a speeding jeep.

But instead of watching the zombies surrounding us, I looked up at the sky.

A black dot was stamped on the moon. It was growing larger at an incredible speed.

"Ten seconds!"

Mo Haein, who’d announced Je Hyun-oh’s position, swung her spear and cleared the zombies blocking the jeep’s path.

But there were too many charging from the sides and behind.

"Fuck, that’s fast...!"

Before Kwak Hanmuk could even finish his curse, Je Hyun-oh came into view. And the black crescent-shaped energy he was generating.

"Captain Kwak!"

At Mo Haein’s command, Kwak Hanmuk floored the accelerator.

The jeep shot forward as dozens of black crescents slammed smoothly into the spot we’d just been.

"KREEE—!"

The zombies that had been trying to attack the fresh human at the rear of the jeep were hit by the crescents and turned into dead meat.

The crescents Je Hyun-oh had fired to kill me ended up killing zombies instead.

A moment later, the metal hand lunged at the jeep.

The sharp sound of air tearing apart — and the rosary wrapped around me yanked my body upward.

Fingertips that had just barely missed their target scraped the rear of the jeep.

SKREEE—!

The sound of metal scraping dragged on.

Claw marks like a beast had raked the jeep, but thankfully the spare tire was spared. ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com

Je Hyun-oh’s failed attack, just like before, shredded the zombies that had been clinging close to the jeep instead of me.

Dozens of Dead Zombies bared their teeth and howled.

The ones that had been running furiously, stretching out their rotten arms with all their strength, didn’t even touch a speck of dust from the tires, let alone my flesh.

They all just got blown away in chunks by Je Hyun-oh’s attacks.

Operation 2 — "Use Je Hyun-oh to Clean Up Zombies" — was progressing successfully.

The same operation that had earned me a heartfelt "you’re insane" from Mo Haein when I’d first proposed it.

It did have some minor risks.

I had to act as bait so Je Hyun-oh would spray his attacks everywhere. Mo Haein had to stand on the jeep’s roof and swing her spear at the zombies in front. And Kwak Hanmuk had to drive and control the Bead Rosary at the same time....

But in the end, the operation was a success.

As long as Mo Haein dealt with the zombies blocking the jeep’s path, Je Hyun-oh cleaned up the rest.

Every time he attacked, Dead Zombies vanished from sight. It was deeply satisfying.

Kind of like using cheats in a game?

Plus, maybe this was my second chase, so I was getting veteran experience — it felt smoother than the first time I’d been chased by Je Hyun-oh.

I dangled from the rear of the jeep, enjoying my role as delicious bait.

Then my eyes met Mo Haein’s.

"...."

Mo Haein, zombie that she was, paused mid-swing and glared at me, Black Moon Blade in hand.

Her expression said she had a lot to say. I belatedly dropped the grin I’d been wearing.

Mo Haein scrunched her face once, then turned back to swing her blade at the zombies.

Thanks to Kwak Hanmuk’s furious driving, the research lab was already coming into view.

True to its Dead Zone status, the area around the lab was a ruin.

In the Yellow and Red Zones, there were still some intact buildings here and there, but here in the Dead Zone, the only structure left standing was the lab, built with reinforced materials.

The lab rose alone, pristine, like the last hope of a ruined world.

Having used the cheat code called Je Hyun-oh to reach the lab in record time, I scanned our surroundings.

"Captain Kwak-nim, turn right!"

Kwak Hanmuk yanked the wheel in front of the lab. The tires screeched against the asphalt.

The car swayed so hard I thought it would flip from oversteer, but it was the moment of a perfect drift through the corner.

A black metal hand lunged at me.

Je Hyun-oh must have been waiting.

Waiting for the moment when the jeep’s speed dropped, when Kwak Hanmuk was focused on driving and couldn’t control the Bead Rosary easily.

But I still had one last card.

Prohibition.

Prohibit ’Je Hyun-oh’!

It was only a few seconds, but the effect of control was certain.

The metal hand that would have definitely torn me apart this time froze in midair.

Then his body, unable to control its wings, plummeted. His black form tumbled across the asphalt.

"Kh..."

I squeezed my eyes shut. The pain felt like my eyeballs were burning. I swallowed a groan.

Still, maybe because I’d braced for it, I could endure.

I was hoping not to use that unless I had to.

But if I hadn’t used it just now, I’d be dead. No choice. Better to be a little hurt than dead.

But I couldn’t use it again.

One more time, and I felt like some part of my body would be permanently damaged.

The jeep slammed to a stop.

I jolted as the rosary slithered loose and lowered me to the ground. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ

Finally, my feet touched the ground.

"Uh."

My legs buckled. My vision blurred red, and my heartbeat pounded loudly in my ears.

"Trainee!"

Mo Haein jumped off the jeep and quickly caught me.

Kwak Hanmuk scrambled out of the driver’s seat, panting, and flinched when he saw me.

I wiped my chin with the back of my hand and made an awkward excuse.

"I’m fine. Just near-death status. It’s the hunger and thirst stats... Give me a moment, I’ll eat something and recover right away."

"...What?"

The two of them stared at me in shock. I felt a little embarrassed.

We all starved together, and I’m the only one in near-death status.

They’d both pushed themselves way harder than me, but they weren’t even close to near-death.

My base stamina really was on another level.

The Trial fills in the stats you’re lacking up to the minimum needed for the strategy, but it doesn’t cut down stats that are already above that minimum.

Mo Haein and Kwak Hanmuk and I had started from different places.

Which meant I should have managed my hunger and thirst stats more carefully....

But I’d been so focused on Je Hyun-oh that I’d made a basic mistake.

"You... what the hell were you doing to get to that state?"

"Sorry."

"No, I’m not trying to hear you apologize."

Mo Haein roughly pushed back her hair, then whirled around to face Kwak Hanmuk.

Before she could even open her mouth, Kwak Hanmuk was already frantically pulling a backpack out of the jeep’s back seat.

Then he turned the backpack upside down and dumped a pile of food into my hands.

I stared at Kwak Hanmuk, my arms full of food.

"I think I just need one can and a bottle of water."

"Uh, eat. Eat it all."

He peeled open a hot dog and shoved it into my mouth.

I chewed and swallowed the hot dog, and the heartbeat in my ears faded. My narrowed vision restored itself.

Mo Haein handed me a bottle of water — she’d already unscrewed the cap — and as I drank, Kwak Hanmuk kept muttering in awe.

"Whoa, this is insane. Crazy Chestnut hyung-nim is driving me crazy."

Crazy Chestnut....

So my nickname had already evolved from Roasted Chestnut to Crazy Chestnut.

I stuffed food and water into my mouth as fast as I could, recovered my stats, and immediately checked on Je Hyun-oh.

He’d been lying still on the ground this whole time, but now he slowly pushed himself up.

Kwak Hanmuk and Mo Haein immediately stepped in front of me.

Je Hyun-oh waved his hand.

"Lieutenant Colonel-nim, are you back to your senses now?"

Kwak Hanmuk asked, eyes wary. An emoticon appeared on the goggles.

ㅇ <

Was that... a wink?

It seemed like he meant he was back to his senses.

Je Hyun-oh crooked his metal finger, beckoning me over.

When Kwak Hanmuk stepped forward, Je Hyun-oh shook his head. When Mo Haein stepped forward, he shook his head again.

He kept shaking his head — until I stepped forward. Then he stopped.

I hesitated, wondering if I should get closer, when a click sounded.

Je Hyun-oh was taking off his goggles.