Apocalypse Tyrant

Show of Force (3)

Another noise echoing in the library area following the car alarm.

“Go up and guard the window.”
“Y-yes sir!”

Since shouting would be quieter than that roar, I informed Ko Janghun of the next plan with words rather than eye contact, then started sprinting once again.

“Keeeeeek—!”

The zombie bastard shouting excitedly with all it had at the new prey.

Probably soon, many companion bastards who feel competitive at that joy will run towards me.

Splat—!

As the charging zombie bastard collapsed, zombies running eagerly were detected in the view that had been blocked by it.

I hurriedly retrieved the metal pipe dripping black blood drip— drip— and ran at full speed towards the ladder.

“Wh-what the fuck—! Who are you—!”
“Um, please calm, calm down—”
“Uwaa, uwaaaah—!”

Voices flowing through the window while climbing up the ladder.

I twisted my mouth and clicked my tongue at the situation where both up and down were going crazy in pairs.

“Keeeeeek—!”

Zombies gathered like ants in front of the ladder before I knew it.

I crossed over the open window while watching the black bag approaching closer and closer to the open window.

Then I hurriedly pulled up the ladder that zombie bastards were gripping, shaking, and shoulder-charging while going crazy.

Crunch—!

The ladder making a savage noise and crumpling in the tug-of-war with zombies.

But unable to overcome my strength, the ladder gradually came to me, so I quickly put it down on the library floor and stared ahead.

“Uwaaaah—!”

There was an unfamiliar man charging at Ko Janghun with his eyes wide open.

A face exuding even more terror than Ko Janghun being attacked, and a small hammer in his hand.

My feet react faster than my hands.

Splat—!

A kick cleanly embedding into the charging guy’s stomach.

The guy who had been charging collapses face down on the floor and instantly slides to crash into a bookshelf.

Boom—!

The man who hit his head on the bookshelf and fainted without moving.

I took in Ko Janghun who was frozen in place while backing away and an unfamiliar woman I hadn’t known was there until now.

Especially the female college student covering her mouth tightly with trembling legs and violently shaking eyes.

Strangely, seeing that appearance made the next action seem clear as if I had foreseen it.

My right arm waving carelessly as if saying do it if you’re going to do it.

Based on that right arm, the woman’s voice rings out as if her throat would tear.

“Kyaaaaaaah—!”
“Keeeeeek—!”

I closed the open window and drew the blinds at the zombies’ roars responding as if answering that scream.

The sound of a group running over following the woman’s scream with a crash—.

I asked Ko Janghun while looking at the female college student who stopped screaming mid-way and collapsed onto the floor on her own.

“What’s going on?”
“Ugh— When I came up, that man and that woman ugh—”

Ko Janghun rolling his eyes as if very embarrassed.

Ah—

I understood at once and let out a hollow laugh while nodding my head.

These bastards are doing that crap even in this situation.

“What’s going on—! What happened—!”

Numerous people instantly surrounding Ko Janghun and me while panting heavily.

It seemed like the first time since the zombie apocalypse broke out that I was taking in over ten survivors in one glance.

The numerous survivors who weren’t zombies noticed our existence and opened their eyes wide as if they would tear.

“Hic— Hic— Oppa—”

The female college student pitifully reaching out her finger towards the group that came running while sobbing.

“Suddenly— Suddenly— Hic— Hic—”

She pointed at the man who had fainted after hitting the bookshelf while unable to even continue her words properly.

“Sejun? Sejun—!”

Only then recognizing the man who had charged with a hammer, one man among the group that came running hurriedly ran to him.

“Sejun—! What’s going on, are you okay?! Wh-why is this bastard doing this?!”

The man lightly slapping the cheeks of the man who seemed to have fainted and shaking his shoulders.

Except for that man, everyone who had suddenly run over was warily watching us.

“Wh-who are you people—!”

A sharp question that should naturally pop out.

They were also pointing small tools at us as if aiming, each holding them in their hands as if they had found a toolbox like me.

Black blood faintly stained on the ends of their tools.

Well, there’s no way they could have secured a safe space without any resistance in the library that was half air, half people like an ant colony.

They must have been able to be in this place only after killing zombie bastards trying to devour them too.

Thanks to that, the look in their eyes as they watched us wasn’t at all like looking at fellow students normally.

Very sharp and aggressive blood-red eyes.

“Ah—! Aren’t you the student council vice president? You came to our class to campaign back then, don’t you remember?!”

At that moment, Ko Janghun stepping forward one step through the tense confrontation.

He brightly asked while pointing at the man in the center who seemed to be the leader of the group.

The large-built man nodding his head weakly at his designation.

“Yes, that’s correct. I don’t remember because I visited almost all departments for campaigning.”

A stiff answer fitting the tense atmosphere perfectly.

The man who seemed to be the vice president narrowed his eyes in the still unresolved atmosphere and continued speaking.

“Anyway, I asked who you are.”
“Ah— We came from the Humanities Building—”
“What? Not the College of Education but the Humanities Building? The Humanities Building is quite far from—”
“Yeri.”

A high-pitched tone interrupting Ko Janghun’s words and asking back.

The vice president cut off the words of the female college student he immediately looked at with a questioning face among the group.

Haha—

Ko Janghun showing a faint smile at that appearance and continuing his words.

“Of course we ugh— barely came here after a lot of hard work too. We luckily found an open window and ladder while being chased by zombies.”

Whew~ We were really~ lucky.

Ko Janghun letting out a deep breath and sighing in relief, then staring at the man who was still unconscious.

“Of course— There was a very slight collision with that gentleman who mistook us for zombies while coming up, but he’ll be fine.”

We really only bumped into each other a tiny bit.

Ko Janghun shrugging his shoulders while emphasizing ‘a tiny bit’ with his fingers.

I can only see the black bag bobbing behind his back, but I could clearly imagine him continuing the conversation while rolling his cunning eyes this way and that by now.

“Did you really come from the Humanities Building? How? There must be zombies everywhere outside now. How did you break through that zombie field—”
“Yeri.”

The female college student shooting out words quickly while soothing the woman who was still sobbing on the floor.

The vice president interrupted the female college student’s words once again and stared at Ko Janghun.

“It doesn’t matter whether you came from the Humanities Building or wherever. Get out.”
“…Pardon?”

Ko Janghun’s bewildered retort at the sudden expulsion order.

“Both for safety reasons and food issues. We don’t have room to take in more students right now. Go back to where you came from.”
“…Pardon?”

It’s not a particularly surprising reaction.

I probably would have done the same to unfamiliar visitors in this situation too.

But as if that wasn’t the case for Ko Janghun, he stepped forward one more step and raised his voice.

“You’re telling us to go back among those zombies?! That’s just telling us to die!”

The library 2nd floor group avoiding eye contact as if feeling guilty at Ko Janghun’s shout.

I carefully scanned them one by one from behind Ko Janghun.

People pointing their weapons at us while holding them, and the survivors on the 2nd floor of the library watching that scene with anxious faces behind them.

Among them, my gaze stopped on one woman surrounded by a group of women.

Beauty that stands out at a single glance as if she’s a completely different race from others.

I couldn’t help but open my mouth slightly at the real-life appearance with much more destructive power than the face I always saw on YouTube.

That superior beauty that seemed unable to be fully captured by cameras, as Ko Janghun’s junior had made a fuss about.

Her name naturally comes to mind at those large eyes quietly glaring at us.

‘Seolhee’.

Her real name was probably Cha Seolhee, and she was the visual center of High Queens.

The miracle of a small-medium idol who made an agency with only one signed artist, High Queens, instantly stand shoulder to shoulder with the Big 3 agencies by continuing a streak of big hits with every song released after debut.

Moreover, the true protagonists of a miracle achieved with fandom loyalty itself not from male idols but female idols.

The #1 female idol who has continuously defended the #1 spot in individual brand reputation rankings for female idols since debut with unrivaled beauty even within High Queens.

Since that ‘Seolhee’ debuted, even the excuse that their idol is really pretty but just unlucky and not making it big didn’t work anymore.

Because everyone started saying this to fans who said that.

‘Then, your idol probably wasn’t as pretty as Seolhee.’

Well, from my poor perspective, there was no hobby more economical than YouTube.

Naturally you end up watching idol fancam videos while watching YouTube like that—

And as you watch fancams like that, you learn a lot of miscellaneous information from videos that come in through the algorithm.

I didn’t go that deep after learning that ‘idol fandom’ is just rich guys wasting money if you go deep into it.

Still, if you read through the battleground of bastards fighting in the comments just once, you could roughly know the outline of most idol scenes.

“The library isn’t the student council’s or the people here’s property, what right do you have to try to kick us out! The library is a space for all Banseok University students!”
“I’m politely notifying you as the vice president of the Banseok University General Student Council.”
“No, fu—! What kind of notification is that?! How can you with such a worthless position as student council vice president—!”
“At least I have the position of student council vice president. Do you have even that kind of position?”

Ko Janghun backing away in disbelief at the shameless answer.

I kept staring at Cha Seolhee without even looking at him.

She really seemed to have a magical charm that made it impossible to take my eyes off her once I started looking.

As I appreciated her selfish proportions and large facial features one by one, before I knew it a perfect cold beauty with cat-like features was glaring at us.

“Student council fees! We’re people who paid student council fees too, are you going to do this?!”
“The conversation is getting more and more childish. I won’t say it twice. Get out.”
“We elected you to work for students in this kind of situation, but you’re driving students to their deaths— You fuck!”
“That’s why I’m stepping up for students— You bastard.”

Increasingly shortening speech and intense swearing.

At the vice president’s final words, the students standing together behind him stepped forward one step.

Thanks to that, Cha Seolhee’s face that had been looking at me with furrowed brows as if noticing my gaze was blocked by some male bastard’s face.

Tsk—!

I tapped Ko Janghun’s shoulder thud— as he was breathing heavily while clicking my tongue softly for some reason.

Ko Janghun backing away while biting his lip at my hand gesture.

Trudge— Trudge—

I take a few steps forward in the 2nd floor of the library that had instantly fallen into silence.

At a glance it looks like a posture of boldly holding out weapons, but—

Something different is reflected in my eyes.

As if this is their first time— Their hands and legs trembling faintly.

And the look in their eyes that ultimately can’t hide the conflict as humans, even while following the vice president’s opinion.

Maybe I could persuade them.

Maybe I could persuade the authoritarian vice president and join the library camp.

Thud—! Thud—!

I waved the metal pipe in my right hand tick— tick— while gradually approaching forward.

Bookshelves constantly getting caught on the metal pipe due to the narrow terrain.

Everyone’s gaze gathers on the metal pipe making that strange noise.

Something uncomfortably different from their own tools they’re pointing at me.

Something pitch black like tar painted indelibly on the end of the metal pipe.

I might be able to change their minds through conversation and persuasion.

But that would be quite a complicated matter.

And I—

Was now someone who didn’t need to do complicated things anymore.

“…I don’t want to.”