Chapter 16

Je Hyuno was not my first registration.

I had already registered Park Seonggyeon as a test before.

But this time was completely different.

A scorching heat, as if I were boiling alive, tore through my entire body.

It was undoubtedly unbearable pain.

But at the same time, a strange sensation appeared that made me feel something indescribable.

Relief?

Release?

Satisfaction…?

I didn’t know exactly how to describe it.

That sensation crushed the pain and drove itself directly into my brain.

The euphoria that arose within me made the corners of my lips curl upward on their own.

Registration complete!

I already knew exactly what I had to do.

It was something as natural as a newborn lamb searching for its mother’s milk.

‘Prohibition. Message.’

A Prohibition is applied to ‘Je Hyuno’.

You think about the message you will send to ‘Je Hyuno’.

I felt a sharp pain in my nose.

It seemed that the heat from my eyes had moved downward.

I tasted the metallic flavor of blood as I sent the message.

I could see a system window blocking Je Hyuno’s path.

“Captain, don’t attack!”

Kwak Hanmuk, who had been preparing to strike, hesitated.

“Just ram into him!”

If Je Hyuno counterattacked, we would both be torn apart.

But there was no time to argue.

“Captain Kwak!!”

When I called out to him, Kwak Hanmuk let out a mad laugh.

The rosaries wrapped around both of us instead of attacking.

They bound us together so that we would not be separated no matter what happened.

“Damn it, Lieutenant Colonel Je Hyuno! Welcome the new recruit!”

Kwak Hanmuk’s wild laughter mixed with the deafening roar of the engine.

The motorcycle shot straight forward.

Je Hyuno stood before us.

Motionless under the effects of the Prohibition.

And in front of him floated a system window.

Stay still.

Je Hyuno’s gaze moved away from the window.

And turned toward me.

My face was reflected in the smooth surface of his goggles, where no LEDs were lit.

But it was still impossible to see what expression he was hiding behind them.

Just before impact.

The rosaries completely covered our field of vision.

Kwak Hanmuk and I were protected inside a cocoon formed by the beads.

BOOOOM!

The crash sounded like slamming into a steel wall.

The violent shock seemed to rattle even my internal organs.

The rosaries scattered apart.

And both of us rolled across the ground pathetically.

“Ugh…!”

Kwak Hanmuk spat out a mouthful of blood.

The rosaries had absorbed much of the impact.

But not all of it.

The strange alien metal that made up Je Hyuno’s body was particularly incompatible with the biota wood rosaries.

Lying in a pool of blood, Kwak Hanmuk checked Je Hyuno’s condition before checking his own.

A brief silence followed.

Then he spoke with a hint of disbelief.

“…Lieutenant Colonel Je Hyuno?”

Je Hyuno was lying at the end of a long skid mark carved into the ground.

Completely motionless.

Like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Kwak Hanmuk voiced what he wanted to hear.

“Is he dead?”

Of course, even he didn’t believe that was possible.

I staggered to my feet and approached.

“Right now… we should move as quickly as possible.”

We couldn’t waste this opportunity while Je Hyuno remained immobilized.

Then Kwak Hanmuk suddenly grabbed my face with both hands.

He stared at me intently.

With my cheeks squashed between his hands, I protested quietly.

“That hurts…”

Kwak Hanmuk didn’t react.

He kept staring at me for several seconds before muttering.

“It came back.”

“What came back?”

“Nothing. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. What about you, Captain?”

“I’m perfectly fine.”

…he replied while blood ran from the corner of his mouth.

I probably didn’t look any better.

I wiped the blood from my nose and chin with my sleeve.

“We need to move.”

“Yeah. Let’s go.”

He went to retrieve the backpack and duffel bag that had been thrown away by the impact.

He discarded the crushed onigiri, dented cans, broken bottles, and ruined weapons.

Then he reorganized the luggage with the food and tools that were still usable.

With the duffel bag slung over his shoulder, he cautiously approached Je Hyuno.

Je Hyuno remained motionless.

Completely still.

Kwak Hanmuk signaled to me with his fingers.

I limped forward.

Just as we passed by Je Hyuno.

The lights on his goggles lit up.

X X

Now I completely understood why they called him a sane madman.

The moment he saw the goggles, Kwak Hanmuk unleashed a stream of curses.

But he wasted no more time.

The two of us left Je Hyuno behind and entered Yellow Zone.

Despite it being midnight, the area was completely silent.

There wasn’t a single zombie in sight.

All the nearby zombies had gathered at the bridge and ended up sinking into the river.

Kwak Hanmuk found an old jeep.

He forced open the key compartment and started the engine with a screwdriver.

“Goyo, do you know how to drive?”

“I have a license, but I’ve only driven manual cars in video games.”

Kwak Hanmuk chuckled and took the wheel.

“Should we head to the base first?”

“Yeah. Good idea.”

We needed to regroup before going out to search for Mo Haein.

In our current condition, we wouldn’t even be able to handle a single zombie.

While Kwak Hanmuk drove, I sank into the passenger seat like a flattened piece of mochi.

And decided to check Je Hyuno’s status.

‘Je Hyuno’s status.’

— Je Hyuno (Manifestation)

— Soldier

Equipped Items:

— None

Possessed Items:

— Crow Hood Jumper (1)

— Crow Combat Uniform (1)

— Crow Goggles (1)

— Crow Mask (1)

— Crow Gloves (1)

— Crow Boots (1)

> Message

> Prohibition

> Execution

Options that hadn’t existed when I registered Park Seonggyeon had appeared.

I examined each section one by one.

It seemed that Manifestation was the name given to Je Hyuno within the Trial.

His profession was simply listed as Soldier, without any indication of rank.

Probably because Dead Zone Delivery did not have a detailed profession system for players.

The items were divided into two categories.

Obtained Items and Possessed Items.

‘Obtained Items must be the ones acquired inside the current Trial, and Possessed Items… the ones he originally had, like Mo Haein’s Black Moon Blade?’

I waited for a moment.

No system window appeared to contradict me.

It seemed my deduction was correct.

The list of Possessed Items was practically a crow festival.

Je Hyuno always used his own equipment inside Trials.

But this was the first time I had discovered that everything belonged to the same set.

‘And Prohibition.’

It was the ability I had just used on Je Hyuno.

Prohibition temporarily restricted the actions of a registered character.

But its duration was extremely short.

Three seconds at most?

It seemed to be the current limit of my abilities.

The reason Je Hyuno had not moved after those three seconds was the message I sent immediately afterward.

The order to stay still.

From Je Hyuno’s perspective, an inexplicable phenomenon had just occurred.

The most logical thing to do was obey what the system window said.

‘Because he doesn’t know that I was the one who sent it.’

I could probably use that trick on him a few more times.

The problem was that it was still only a temporary solution.

With my current abilities, it was impossible to completely control Je Hyuno.

And I couldn’t keep chaining the use of Prohibition over and over again.

Remembering the pain I had suffered when activating it, it was clear that it placed an enormous burden on my body.

I might end up dying before I managed to control Je Hyuno.

‘Isn’t there some kind of offensive ability?’

You feel great satisfaction with your progress.

You think this has been an extremely successful first registration.

And you commit yourself to continuing your development in the future.

To grow faster and obtain new abilities, you consider it advisable to fill all three registration slots first.

The system seemed to be in a very good mood.

Normally, it only sent isolated words such as “insufficient.”

But this time it had even taken the trouble to explain itself.

It was probably thanks to registering Je Hyuno.

However, I wanted to avoid registering people whenever possible.

It had already seemed unsettling to me before.

And after registering Je Hyuno, I was even more convinced.

Having absolute control over another person was already a burden.

But the real problem was something else.

I felt like something inside me was changing.

The emotions and thoughts I experienced while registering him were not normal.

It also seemed that I had thought something strange during that moment.

But only a vague feeling remained.

I couldn’t remember it clearly.

It was like waking up after being in a trance.

I had always preferred a quiet life, true to my name.

Becoming the System of Earth was already more than enough responsibility.

Adding something capable of affecting my mind was too much.

Perhaps improving the System’s capabilities solely by completing Trials was impossible.

I would find out when I achieved the True Ending of Dead Zone Delivery.

‘I’ll try to handle things on my own whenever possible.’

As for Je Hyuno.

Well, he was already registered, so there was no helping it.

After organizing my thoughts, I looked at Kwak Hanmuk.

He was someone who actively supported me and allowed me to act.

Even when something seemed suspicious, he trusted me without questioning it.

What happened earlier had only been possible because he agreed to ram into Je Hyuno according to my plan.

Although there was also the possibility that he simply enjoyed doing crazy things.

“What?”

Perhaps I had been staring at him for too long.

Kwak Hanmuk shot me a sidelong glance.

Since we were already talking, I decided to ask a question.

“Captain Kwak, may I ask what name you received inside the Trials?”

I was curious about information about him that had never appeared in the game.

Kwak Hanmuk answered without hesitation.

“Blue Thunder.”

“……”

“You just thought, why is he called Blue Thunder when he has red hair?”

“…How did you know?”

“Haha!”

Kwak Hanmuk burst out laughing.

I suffered in silence.

Suddenly, I felt envious.

I should have chosen a cooler name when I played.

I was paying the price for picking one at random.

‘Isn’t there some way to change it?’

If there were a name-change ticket, I would buy it without hesitation.

Even so, I was still curious.

Why was he called Blue Thunder?

Even his eyes were gray.

Though I didn’t dare ask directly.

Then Kwak Hanmuk took something out of the glove compartment with one hand while continuing to drive.

I couldn’t help but exclaim.

“Wow…”

It was a portable cassette player connected to a pair of wired headphones.

“I found it in the glove compartment. I guess it’s your first time seeing one.”

“I’ve seen them in archived footage.”

“Archived footage…”

Kwak Hanmuk repeated those words quietly.

There was definitely a bit of a generation gap between us.

I stared at the player with fascination.

It was an item I had never seen in the game.

The glove compartments of vehicles couldn’t be opened there.

The description was simple.

Portable Music Player.

Contains a cassette with six exciting songs.

“Don’t listen to the music.”

I was just about to put on the headphones when I stopped.

“Ah.”

The Trial Response Agency’s rules prohibited using Trial items carelessly.

You never knew what kind of infection they might cause.

It was a reasonable rule.

‘But I want to listen to it.’

Even so, I would have to wait.

I stored the player in the duffel bag.

Come to think of it, the onigiri and Buldak ramen seemed modern.

But the weapons, the jeep, and the cassette player were clearly old-fashioned.

It was as if several different eras had been mixed together.

When I explored Dead Zone Delivery as a video game, I had never noticed it.

But seeing it in reality felt quite strange.

And I found it hard to believe it was simply a quirk of the Trial.

If the Trials were based on the games created by the Developer…

I knew very well that he was not someone who neglected details.

In fact, one of the reasons I liked his games so much was the meticulousness of their design.

If the time periods had always been mixed together and the game had simply hidden it.

“Aaaaaagh!”

SCREEEECH!!

Suddenly, Kwak Hanmuk screamed and slammed on the brakes.

My body lurched forward.

Only the seatbelt kept me from smashing my head into the windshield.

I looked ahead with my eyes wide open.

“Captain Mo…?”

Mo Haein, turned into a zombie, was hitchhiking.