TAK TAK.
Oliver headed towards the area of Otul family along with Joe and his group.
It was said that in addition to dozens of members from the family, there were also residents (Looters) living under their protection, and it was safe to say that it was a small village.
Nevertheless, when Oliver entered the area there was no human trace, and as Joe said, they seemed to have been robbed by someone.
“Just like you, we were also planning to raid the Otul family and steal their books and the technics they were deploying. As you might have heard, their skills are considered pretty good.”
Oliver agreed.
Aside from remodeling zombies, it demands a fair level of skill to be able to hand over the control of the zombie to a third party.
It was true that they had some pretty decent skills.
“Okay. So, did you hire these mercenaries?”
“No, officially the mercenaries hired us, but in reality, we are collaborating. While we raid the Warlocks and Looters, the mercenaries will take the monetary loot, and we'll get the books and tools.”
Oliver nodded.
It seemed like a pretty good deal, that is if they could trust each other.
Because of the nature of the contaminated zone, Oliver just didn't have the right person to protect his back.
"Um…But there's one thing I don't understand, Mr. Joe."
"What is it?"
“Mr. Joe specializes in disease-related magic, so why do you covet manipulation-related black magic? Oh, are you going to study that as well?”
“… No, it’s not for me, I’m going to provide it to my crew members. In the first place, even if I study other magic, the efficiency wouldn’t be good….. Unless I am an insane person, I won’t do something like that.”
As Joe finished speaking, he looked at Oliver.
“Um… you’re offering it to the crew members?”
“Yeah, because there are warlocks in our crew as well. We could help each other and become stronger.”
“Um…”
Oliver was quite amazed.
It felt quite impressive for Oliver, who had never experienced anything other than the Joseph family as a Warlock organization.
Ironically, the family which got gathered to learn black magic and become stronger did not want the same family members to become stronger than a certain amount, and in fact, breaking this was considered quite dangerous.
But the Fighter Crew helps each other to become stronger.
He doesn't know the details, but from what he has heard so far, it seemed to be a more productive organization than the existing Warlock family.
“Thank you for your kind explanation.”
"Don't thank me. I’ve my motives for explaining this to you."
"Pardon?"
“We are here.”
Instead of answering the question, Joe pointed forward.
At the end of where he was pointing, there was a destroyed small shanty town, and the barricades around the village were mercilessly broken.
Scattered pieces were all over the place.
Judging from the damage, it could be concluded that it was not a simple zombie attack.
There were traces of explosions in the building at the center of the village.
“Joe, who’s that guy?”
People who camped near the destroyed village approached and asked.
There were twenty mercenaries armed with protective gear, regular firearms, and a warlock.
Joe told his colleagues.
"He’s Dave… Remember the time when I almost died?"
"Ah…the guy who killed Nico and the Bigjaw?"
“Yes. That was me. I'm sorry about that."
“Hahahahahaha.”
Hearing Oliver's polite and sincere apology, the unknown warlock began to laugh.
“Hahahahahahaha.”
“Hahahahahahahahahahaha”
Following him, the other mercenaries also began to laugh, and suddenly the unknown warlock took out a gun.
BANG!
The bullet passed right next to Oliver's head, and the atmosphere became as quiet as a mouse at the sudden sound of the gunfire.
The friendly atmosphere suddenly disappeared, leaving only a deathly silence.
After a long silence, the unknown warlock opened his mouth.
“Wow….you got some balls? You didn’t even blink… I guess you're not afraid of death, and that’s what made you kill my friend?"
"No. I am scared of death… I'm sorry about Mr. Nico and Mr. Bigjaw. If I didn’t kill them I'd have been the one who died that day. Mr. Nico failed to control his power and… Anyway, I’d like to apologize once again.”
The unknown warlock smiled and pointed his gun toward Oliver's head once again.
“Can I also shoot a bullet in your head and apologize?”
The tension grew, but this time it was a bit serious.
Oliver's polite apology seemed to have irked the unknown warlock.
Oliver didn't understand the situation and looked around.
The mercenaries were getting ready to fight Oliver following the warlock.
Oliver didn't want to fight in a fight with no gain, and just then Joe intervened.
The unknown warlock lowered the muzzle looking at Joe standing in front of Oliver.
“Calm down, Sam. First of all, I brought him here as a guest.”
“Guest? This bastard killed Nico and Bigjaw, didn’t he? Thanks to that you, I, and the others are struggling here.”
‘Um…’
Apparently, the Fighter Crew wasn't a great organization either.
When Oliver first heard Joe’s explanation, it seemed that his colleagues were cooperating to grow together, but as he heard Sam's words, it felt like they were forced to come here against their will.
Oliver wanted to ask them about this, but Joe and Sam's conversation was so serious that it wasn't easy to intervene.
“We have to work with that guy.”
“Ah…why?”
“Because he is strong enough to kill both Nico and Bigjaw, and almost killed me. You know there’s something unusual going on here right now, right?”
Sam hesitated for a moment as if he understood something, and at that moment, Oliver intervened.
“Excuse me. What’s going on here, what are you talking about?”
“… The cleaning this time is different from usual. It’s also very dangerous.”
“What part are you talking about?”
“The zombies usually run toward the Solvers as soon as they come in, but this time they are running away as if they were trying to lure them. And I don't see any Looters."
“Looters?"
“Yeah, if you go a little deeper, you would encounter one or two, but this time there are no traces of them. No, not just Looters, there are no traces of humans, we can’t see anything except zombies. In addition…”
Joe continued after pausing for a while.
“In addition to this, I visited two other Warlock families, and they were also in a state similar to the one here.”
“You mean they were all attacked by someone?”
“That's right. It's not zombies, it's something a lot more dangerous than that… That's why I brought you here and explained this kindly… Let's work together for a while."
“Work together?”
“Yeah. The situation seems serious, so how about working with us?”
"Um… I'm a little confused. It's an unexpected offer… But why me?"
"Because you have the skills… it’s not a bad suggestion for you either. In a situation where some kind of unknown danger is looming around, it isn’t bad to have someone to protect your back.”
Oliver thought seriously.
Oliver couldn’t understand the situation, but he could tell that Joe had no intention of harming him. At least for now.
“I believe you, Mr. Joe.…… But, are you really okay working with me?"
Joe answered after a momentary silence.
“…Uh, Yes. For some reason, I think you’re not the kind of person who breaks his promise.”
Oliver would have refused, but the original plan he’d had turned upside down, and there was definitely something unusual.
“Um… In the process of working together, if we get something like a black magic book, how will we share it?”
“Well… it’s a matter that we have to think about, but let’s share it as fair as possible.”
Joe’s words were sincere.
Then Sam, who had been listening quietly, intervened.
He asked him why he said things like that, but Joe said that the situation was serious, so strengthening the power was the first priority.
Oliver thought for a while.
A party to look after his back, and a promise to share black magic books didn't sound too bad.
As Oliver was about to open his mouth to answer, a crackling sound echoed.
Oliver looked at his communications device, but it wasn't his. It was the sound from Joe's communication device.
"What?"
[Kiik…! Kiik…! Fuck… support…! Please……. Kiik… Zombies appeared… Kiik! They're having weapons…! Fu*king zombies are having weapons, guns.]
Oliver doubted whether what he had heard was correct.
The voice that came from the communication device kept saying that the zombies were wielding weapons and shooting guns.
⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩
“Sh*t Sh*t Sh*t Sh*t Sh*t Sh*t Sh*t Sh*t GODDAMN FU*KING SH*T”
Colin from the Magic Tower… No, to be precise, Colin McLaughlin from the Mjölnir School of Magic Tower, spit out swear words.
He entered the Mjölnir school, a traditional school specializing in elemental magic, without hesitation under the determination to become a powerful wizard.
The reason was simple.
Because the essence of a wizard is power.
In recent years, under the influence of industrialization, fields such as magic engineering, alchemy, life school, and golem technology have been in the spotlight, but he believed this was only a brief fad that would disappear in the flow of time.
For Colin, the truth of the world was power, and for him, the Wizards were the epitome of power.
It was because of their Power, the wizards who we once oppressed were respected and considered the Leaders of society today.
When he came out into the world under the teaching of the Mjölnir school, he once again confirmed that Power was everything in a world that was ruled by violence.
He learned the dark side of the world that he had not learned in the Magic tower.
He had seen with his own eyes how much violence rages behind a world that seems to be run by law and order.
The knowledge gained from experience – an area that was never known to ordinary people who only read books in the tower. Colin was not one of them, he did not stop with just learning, he became a part of that world.
He wiped out a gang in his first job, defeated a veteran solver in the second, slaughtered a warlock in the third, and defeated the street wizards in the fourth.
Although he struggled with unexpected things several times, he overcame it with his natural talent and knowledge, and in return, Colin was able to gain a title called, Dark horse of District B, even though he had taken off the title, Wizard of the Magic tower.
It was not bad.
To be recognized for his own abilities.
That customers with money and power approached him with courtesy and caution to get his help.
All of that made Colin happy.
Of course, thanks to that, he got put into the annoying cleaning job.
A job he thought he could have finished single-handedly.
But, for the first time, the world that went the way he expected didn’t go the way he wanted…….
“What is this?!”
Colin shouted and fired a Magic missile.
He had to use a complicated technique, but in terms of overall power and efficiency, this was the most effective.
As Colin expected, the magic missile that was surrounded by flame magic collided with dozens of zombies and exploded, setting everything on fire.
“UUUUUUUUUUUUUUU”
“GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU”
As if to prove that the zombies were weak to fire, the zombie swarms were swept away all at once.
If it was the normal world he knew, everything should have ended with that attack. But it didn’t…
“Sir. Wizard!”
A Solver armed with a reinforced shield came to Colin's side and put on the shield.
After that, there was a small explosion.
The shield that was deployed prevented Colin from the explosion, and to Colin’s surprise, it was a zombie that threw a bomb at the opening.
It would have been fortunate if it had ended with just that.
“Wizard. Are you O….”
BANG!
From a distance, a zombie with a sniper rifle fired and hit the Solver who helped Colin in the head.
The zombie was fresh as if it had died a while ago, yet it succeeded in sniping.
The zombie even reloaded the rifle to shoot again.
[Magic Missile]
Colin fired a magic missile at the zombie that was holding a rifle on top of a building and knocked it down.
“GUUUUUUUU!”
“Sir. Wizard…! I think we should step back.” said one solver who got exhausted from fighting for nearly two hours.
Colin agreed.
The zombies were definitely not a big deal, but the problem was that there were too many.
“Bear’s forearm!”
Druid David borrowed the power of nature and blew up a horde of zombies armed with clubs and guns with tremendous might at once.
Zombies armed with clubs and guns… Everyone felt the situation as some kind of vicious joke.
“Everyone this way! Zombies are coming again!”
At David's call, everyone rushed in his direction.
Everything felt really weird.
Up to the outskirts, there were only small zombie swarms, but suddenly zombies swarmed in from all directions.
It was as if they were waiting.
"Damn…! They are already chasing us from behind. Zombies!"
“Hold on! I found a safe place… There it is!”
The safe zone that Druid David found was a building inside the contaminated zone, with high walls around it, and the only way to get in was the way through which Colin and the others had entered.
Colin, who secured the safety of the side and rear, extracted his mana and gathered Magic in the air.
Then, he entered the formula to create a magic circle, and at that moment, a swarm of zombies chasing the group from behind appeared.
There were almost a hundred of them.
There was even a corpse golem that had been modified by weaving several zombies together.
[Flame Thrower]
Powerful flames got sprayed from the magic circle created in the air along with the chant.
The red flame mercilessly burned the zombie swarm in front of the group and turned them into ashes in an instant.
After barely escaping from a horde of zombies armed with knives and guns, Colin sighed and finally came to his senses and headed toward someone.
It was none other than the fake wizard who brought him here.
“Hey, you… how the hell did this happen? How the FU*K did this happen!”
The warlock named Jaby mumbled with a frightened expression on his face.
Thanks to that, his shabby appearance looked even more shabby.
“Uhhhhhh, Sir. Warlock. I don’t know. I’ve been here more than ten times, but this is the first time this has happened… I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
To Colin’s surprise, he burst into tears. Looking at his pitiful appearance even made the anger inside him disappear.
At that moment, a solver came forward after clearing his mind.
"Hmm…Mr. Wizard. I agree that this is a strange case. I also participated in the cleaning three times, but this…. is something I’m seeing for the first time."
“Are you talking about zombies that shoot and throw bombs?”
"Yeah… I've never seen anything like this before. There are too many of them. No… there were a lot previously too, but they weren't organized like this."
Colin tacitly agreed.
Naturally occurring zombies were nothing more than evil, inferior beings greedy for Life-force.
It made no sense for them to use such an organized movement.
There was only one thing that could explain this case.
Warlocks.
It seemed not only Colin but also other solvers came to the same conclusion.
However, the mere fact a Wizard like him was being hunted by fake Wizards made Colin’s emotions boil up.
“…… It’s probably a Manipulation-type.”
"What?"
"If there's someone behind this, then it would definitely be manipulation-type warlocks, those guys are the only ones who can control zombies like that. Those annoying fu*kers."
Manipulation-type warlocks were the type who hides in a safe place and sends only zombies to target their opponents.
A textbook example of cowardly guys.
"This…. this is not about cleaning anymore. Looking at the systematically moving zombies, it must be a group of warlocks rather than an individual. Maybe it's a group of demon worshipers… We should report this and make the city move its forces.”
"It's true, but the problem is how to get there. Zombies are swarming everywhere. It seems like some solvers have already been hit."
“If we take a breather here and move—”
“No, there is no time for that.”
Druid David spoke with his hand on the ground.
He was listening to the earth's voice to detect who was around, and his expression darkened sharply as time passed.
“The zombies are flocking this way and a lot of them… it's not just zombies, there are corpse golems and even contaminated creatures.”
At those words, the solvers who were suffering from fatigue and fear were agitated, including Colin
As a Wizard Colin needed some time to recover his mana, but at this rate, both his mana and stamina would dry out.
CREEEEK
Everyone's attention got drawn toward the sound of the door.
Jaby, who was on one side of the building, opened an old secret door and said.
“…for now, how about running away from here?”
(To be Continued on OCT 24 {MON})
