Chapter 15. The Little Prince in the Ossuary (15)

# High Risk High Return (2), Paso Robles

Gyeoul opened up the skill window and invested his experience points in 「Map Reading」. If Map Reading reached a certain level, he wouldn’t have to worry about misreading the map or even bother studying it, for the system would automatically scan it and provide him with a minimap. If it reached an even higher level, the system would allow him to visualize the map with augmented reality.

But Gyeoul did not completely invest his experience points. He always kept some extra points in case of an emergency. So for now, he decided to just level up Map Reading to the point where it would highlight things like the shortest route to his destination or the contour of geographic features. Still, that was enough for the boy to navigate to his destination, Daniel Lewis Middle School.

The distance to Daniel Lewis Middle School wasn’t that far from 24th Street, and the chances of getting lost in a well-arranged city were low. Despite this, the boy still memorized the map, just to be safe.

Just as he finished reading the map, Gyeoul saw an icon flickering in one corner of his field of vision. It was a notification of unread messages. The boy, however, turned his eyes away from the icon. It wasn’t that he didn’t see it, he was just ignoring it. But realizing that he couldn’t avoid the messages forever, the boy still opened the message log.

The viewers were currently talking about the skills he learned. They wanted information. Gyeoul spent a little bit of time gathering up his thoughts before giving them an answer.

「「Map Reading」 is not a must-learn skill, but having it does make things easier. It’ll help you navigate through the world without having to worry about getting lost. There’s also a related achievement called 「Did I climb the wrong mountain?」 that just lowers the probability of misreading maps when obtained.」

Gyeoul closed the window without reading the messages that followed after. Live streaming was still awkward for him.

‘I guess it can’t be helped..’

At some point on the road, Gyeoul raised his fist as a signal for his team to halt. His Survival Instinct warned him that something was nearby. The boy grabbed his rifle and pointed its muzzle towards the front. At the end of his rifle lay just an abandoned truck. After a while, however, a mutant walked out from behind it. Before it could even scream, the boy pulled the trigger. Pfft! As soon as the sound of the suppressed gunshot spewed out of the muzzle, the mutant, with its eye pierced, collapsed onto the ground. Murky brain liquid mixed with red blood flowed out from the hole where its eye was supposed to be.

The place where Gyeoul’s group parted with the main force was the intersection of Route 101 and 24th Street. In order to get to their destination, they had to move south until reaching 13th Street and then head east.

The shortest route would’ve been to take Route 101, but the boy decided against it. Route 101, being the national highway, would have tons of vehicles abandoned on the road, which also meant that there would be more mutants infected during the evacuation. Choosing that route would have provided him some extra experience points, however, it was highly likely that they wouldn’t be able to reach their destination before sunset. In view of this, Gyeoul chose to take Riverside Avenue, a road located a bit west to the highway. Although they would have to travel a slightly longer distance, it would definitely be quicker, not to mention safer.

Walking down the road, the group came across a church with some biblical quotations and cries of terror written in red ink.

“That.. isn’t blood.. is it?”

The half-bald man who had identified himself as Ahn Jejung asked with a trembling voice. He seemed surprisingly timid considering his past career as a blue marine. ‘It must’ve taken him a lot of courage to volunteer for this mission.’

“I really hope not.”

Following was the girl’s voice. It was also quite shaky.

Then, all the members except for Gyeoul shrieked in surprise upon hearing a sudden banging noise. Tracking back to the origin of the sound, they saw a bloody handprint along with a hand on the window. And slowly, the owner of the hand appeared from within the darkness. A set of unfocused eyes and a sickly yellow face. It was a mutant.

A critical mistake.

‘Shit, I should have readied my rifle when I heard the sound.’ Gyeoul quickly aimed at the mutant’s head but,

Khraaah-

It was too late. The mutant let out a shrill cry before the boy could take his shot. With several dull gunshots, the mutant’s jaw exploded. Blackish blood splashed against the broken window and trickled down the wall. And as soon as the mutant’s body disappeared from the window, the gates of the church began to rattle. It seemed like mutants were banging at them. Thankfully, the gates didn’t open right away, but it didn’t look like they could hold them for long. Each time they banged, the gap between the doors became wider and wider, with dozens of eyes engulfed in hunger and rage peeking from behind. Gyeoul quickly scanned the surrounding area and found a camper van pulled over one side of the road.

“Get behind that van! Quickly!” Gyeoul shouted with urgency in his voice. His three teammates immediately ran towards the van, but when they realized Gyeoul wasn’t by their side, they came to a sudden halt and turned to look behind.

“What about you?!” The girl shouted.

“Don’t worry about me and go hide!”

The three of them hesitated for a moment before turning back again and running towards the van.

The gate eventually exploded—as that would be the most appropriate way to describe the scene. One of the gates fell from its frame and landed on the floor; the other one was somehow still hanging twistedly from one of the hinges. Then, a stream of mutants poured out. The ones that came out first were in an abnormal state. Pressured by the ones pushing from behind, several parts of their body had their flesh squashed and skin peeled off, revealing muscles and bones here and there.

A swarm of starving dead poured into the street. Lots of them tripped over obstacles and got trampled to death by the ones following behind. Despite this, there were still tons of them frantically running towards the boy.

Regardless of their brains being atrophied, the mutants still possessed a rudimentary level of intelligence. Even though he was hitting a car to lure them towards him, any indication of his teammates’ presence could make the mutants turn towards them. So the boy, with his eyes fixed on the mutants, shouted towards the three of them.

“I’m going to lure them to the other side, you guys get your guns ready! Do not set your rifles to full auto! Use semi-auto only! Aim for their vital points! The head and the heart! But don’t shoot yet! Only shoot once all of them have their backs towards you!”

If they failed to kill the mutants with one bullet, the wounded mutant would most likely turn around to find them and let out a scream to inform the other mutants. Gyeoul had to avoid that at all costs.

Some mutants in fairly good condition rushed far ahead of the swarm. Gyeoul knew this would happen since every mutant’s physical ability differed depending on the host’s original physique. Gyeoul took a single step aside and swung his machete where he stood just a second ago. The momentum of the running mutant meshed with the boy’s swinging force, creating enough power to cut its whole head in half. Had he lacked enough levels in either 「Melee Weapon Mastery」 or 「Close Combat」, his machete would’ve been blocked or stuck in the mutant’s head.historical

After dealing with the first mutant, Gyeoul spotted two more approaching him speedily. When the one at the front arrived several meters ahead of him, his skill 「Combat Eye」 showed him an evasion route. Following the evasion route, the boy dodged the mutant’s arm by a hair’s breadth. The mutant twisted its upper body in order to follow the boy’s movement, but owing to its lower body still running forward, it hastily fell forward. Not missing the opportunity, the boy swiftly stabbed his machete into its neck.

The last mutant was already too close for Gyeoul to slay it with his machete. The mutant reached out its arm while letting out a horrible screech. Just before its arm could touch him, Gyeoul ducked down. Having missing its target, the mutant bumped against the boy’s shoulder and fell backward, with the boy’s shoulder as the pivot. Still wiggling its arms to grab the boy, it fell headfirst onto the concrete road, breaking its neck from the impact.

It took Gyeoul only six breaths to deal with three mutants. For his teammates watching this from behind the van, everything happened in a flash, leaving their mouths agape. They would’ve never imagined a boy like Gyeoul possessing such skills.

“Don’t shoot yet! The mutants are still too close! I repeat, don’t shoot!”

With his eyes still fixed on the looming threat, Gyeoul shouted and waved his hands to keep the three of them from firing. In a hectic situation like this, just shouting once wasn’t enough to deliver the instruction. Many times, extreme tension and fear paralyzed the mind, making it unable to understand.

“One of you three.. no, Yura-ssi! You guard the other directions! The ruckus we caused here might have attracted other mutants!” Gyeoul ordered with a still very calm voice while slaying another mutant. “Jinsuk-ssi, look inside the camper van and make sure it’s safe while we still have time! You three have to hide in there if things get ugly, understood?”

Just as Gyeoul was done dealing with the faster ones, the main pack was almost out of the church, drawing near him. After making loud noises to focus their attention on him, this time, he started to run away from them. He was acting as bait, bait that was not allowed to be caught. And he was confident he could make that happen. He knew several methods to shake off the mutants, which he was using right now, like running in zig-zag over the road. Each time the boy made a turn, the front row of the swarm would fall to the ground, pushed by the ones behind, which delayed the swarm’s movement.

When Gyeoul saw that mutants no longer were coming out from the church, he shouted.

“Now! Fire!”

The boy took a peek behind when he heard the gunshots. Three mutants collapsed on the road at the same time with their heads shot open. ‘Three?’ It seemed like someone wasn’t following his order. Gyeoul yelled once again.

“Yura-ssi! I told you to watch the rear!”

“I’m sor—hup!”

‘Shit!’

Yura, the girl, hurriedly covered her mouth whilst answering, but it was too late.

Some of the mutants heard her voice and turned back. Gyeoul quickly climbed to the top of a nearby vehicle and took out his rifle. Click. With the selector switch set on full auto, he put the rifle butt against his shoulder. A very prompt aiming aided by 「Small Arms Mastery」, 「Combat Eye」 as well as his own experience.

Brrrt- Brrrrrrt!

Empty shells violently splattered on the ground. A whole magazine loaded with thirty bullets was emptied within seconds, but it wasn’t enough to stop the mutants from screaming. About half of the swarm responded to the call.

Gyeoul reloaded a new magazine and loosened the suppressor, both in one swift motion. The suppressor swiveled around the muzzle before falling off to the ground. But now wasn’t the time to pick it up. Gyeoul immediately pulled the trigger.

Braatatatatatat!

Deafening noises of gunshots filled up the whole street. it was loud enough to bring most of the mutants’ attention back to him, and the bullets blasted the heads or other body parts of the mutants that were still heading towards the van.

Gyeoul had managed to stop the mutants from heading towards the van, but he ended up stranded on top of a vehicle. A couple of the mutants started to crawl up the windshield. The boy paused for a few seconds to find a way to deal with the surrounding swarm. Although he could use the hand grenade he had, he’d be in trouble without it if he were to encounter a variant mutant at the school. He already depleted two bullet magazines. He couldn’t afford to waste any more consumables before even reaching the school.

After a short deliberation, Gyeoul hung the rifle back on his shoulder and drew his machete.

‘Good thing I have the high ground. The machete is shorter than I would like, but it shouldn’t be a problem with my skills. Also, the two of them are still shooting down some mutants.’

Beneath Gyeoul there was a swarm of hungry mutants, stretching their arms in an attempt to reach him. Every one of these mutants had been locked inside the church.

And when the boy’s thought reached there, he began to wonder. About the existence of God, and what would be his thoughts if he were to see the boy, who had sold his body and continued his life in a virtual world.

But his thoughts were cut off as one of the mutants managed to climb to the roof of the vehicle. While it was struggling to stand upright, Gyeoul took his chance and grabbed its neck. He then shoved the machete into its open mouth and threw the body onto the swarm. With how tightly packed the swarm was, the body remained on top of the mutants without touching the ground. Using the body as a foothold, the boy jumped over the swarm and landed on an empty space while rolling to break his fall.

The rifle hung over his shoulder made the roll terribly painful, but he didn’t have time to rub his back. The monstrous groans coming from behind were getting closer every second. Gyeoul immediately got up to his feet and ran straight towards a house right by the church. The house was fenced with pointy waist-height wooden planks, which he easily jumped over. Not knowing if the mutants would be able to overcome the fence, the boy began to run again. However, five steps later, he was stopped by the sudden sound of crunches and crackles.

Upon looking behind, he saw some of the mutants impaled on the fence like skewers. It appeared they had failed to climb over the fence for they had been pushed too hard by mutants coming from behind. Even now, the fences were creaking and shaking from the weight that was being applied on it

And soon, the fences gave way to the pressure and the entire swarm collapsed onto the ground. Not missing the opportunity, Gyeoul quickly ran up to the fallen mutants.

Combat boots were a great weapon. One could easily crush a human neck by stomping on it while wearing them. The boy, while being careful not to get caught by the mutants’ arms, trampled on their necks almost at running speed and killed as many as possible. Some mutants were trying to get up on their feet, only to be neutralized by his machete. The boy went on a rampage as though a mass killer on the loose.

The entire yard and street were stained with pools of blood and bits of flesh. If someone were to see it, they’d describe it as a scene from hell. When everything finally calmed down, there was nothing on the street but the boy and a bunch of corpses.

After spending some time retrieving the suppressor he had thrown away on top of a vehicle, Gyeoul went back to check on his team. The two men, who had witnessed the whole scene, could only look at him aghast. According to notifications, an upward revision to respect-type favor and a downward revision to friendship-type favor took place in their minds. They were feeling awe and fear, both at the same time.

‘Well, that’s good enough,’ thought the boy. He then turned towards the girl who was still watching the rear with trembling hands.

“W-what’s happening now? Why is it so quiet? Is our little boss okay?!” The girl asked with a shaky voice.

Gyeoul answered instead of the two men still frozen in place, “It’s over, Yura-ssi. You can turn around now.”

“Eek!” Startled by Gyeoul’s voice, the girl let out a weird noise. She then began to slowly turn around, but just like turning around a statue, her body was still locked into a guarding stance.

The boy sighed and nudged the muzzle of her rifle away from him.

“Careful not point your gun at people.”

“..”

Just like the other two men, she was left speechless, only to have the system notifications show her feelings. The revisions to her favor, however, were somewhat different from what the two men had shown. Maybe it was because she was feeling guilty due to her mistake, or because she hadn’t seen him killing the mutants.

With quivering eyes, Yura stared at the boy for only a brief moment, and then suddenly hugged Gyeoul while weeping loudly.

“I’m sorry! I’m really really sorry.. Because of my stupid mistake, you had to..”

“It’s all right. Nobody got hurt,” said Gyeoul, as he patted her back.

Once again, a notification popped up.