I Was Kidnapped By The Strongest Guild
Chapter 346: The Truth of Zombies

Iron bars mounted above a large prison door.

Gaeul stuck her head between the bars to look inside.

The bars were so high up that she had to hang onto the door to get her head through.

"Gaeul, is there something there?"

"Yeah!"

"Really?"

Was someone imprisoned here?

I stood on tiptoe to look inside too.

That's when I spotted a woman breathing in the darkness.

A young woman sat there lifelessly.

She looked so unwell it seemed like she was dying.

What should we do?

Maybe we should help her first.

Though I didn't know who she was, I couldn't just watch her die.

"What are you doing there...?"

"That's what I want to ask... how are you outside...?"

Though her voice was weak, it wasn't entirely without strength.

Even from just one exchange, I could sense she wasn't a bad person.

"I'm Han Gyeoul. Would you like to escape with us?"

"Escape...? Did you all break out...?"

"Hmm... yes. We just escaped from a prison. Want to get out of here together?"

At the offer to escape together, she lowered her head.

Though she said nothing, it somehow felt like a refusal.

"...Thanks for the offer, but you should probably go without me."

"Why...why not...?"

"I can't move anymore. And there's no key to the prison."

"Ah."

Her body certainly looked unable to move.

But we had potions - miraculous substances.

Though barely noticeable, mana still flowed through her body.

A potion should work in this case.

I gestured to Saebyeok beside me for help.

"Saebyeok, could you open the door?"

"Okay."

Saebyeok put her hand on the door handle.

Clank clank-

Before breaking the iron door, Saebyeok turned the handle back and forth as if testing its strength.

"That'll be hard to open. I'll tell you the way out..."

Crack!

Before the woman could finish speaking, Saebyeok broke the handle.

Watching her break iron was amazing every time.

"Saebyeok is really strong."

"Yeah. I'm really strong."

Ahem.

After patting Saebyeok's head as she puffed out her chest, I slowly opened the prison door.

The rusty door opened with a metallic screech, and Gaeul urgently called out to me.

"Master! Master!"

"Yes?"

The iron bars on the door.

Gaeul, who had stuck her head through and was hanging there, flailed her legs around.

Could she get her head in but not back out?

It would be troubling if she couldn't pull her head out while the door was opening.

"Masteeer."

The door carrying Gaeul stopped with a thunk.

Her head, stuck through the bars, had hit the cave wall.

'Oh no.'

I should have helped her.

I'd just stood there watching blankly without realizing.

Though I felt bad, Gaeul didn't seem to be in pain.

The impact was light since the door opened slowly.

"Saebyeok, could you help Gaeul?"

"Got it."

As Saebyeok went to help Gaeul at the iron door, Levinas and I moved toward the woman.

Choi Jinhyuk stood quietly between us.

"How did you open... ah... an adult..."

"Yes..."

Did she think Choi Jinhyuk broke the door?

Though that was wrong, helping her was the priority right now.

Nodding, I took a potion from my bag.

"Thanks for opening the door, but in my condition..."

"It's okay. I have a potion."

It was a potion Han Yeoreum had given me for emergencies.

Though it was quite valuable, I wouldn't hesitate to use it to save someone's life.

"Here."

I held out the potion to the woman.

But she just stared at it blankly.

Her expression suggested she didn't know what it was.

'Must be a world without potions.'

A world with traces of mana but no potions?

Scratching my cheek, I put the potion to her lips.

"...!"

She closed her mouth, seemingly resistant to the unknown liquid.

I had no choice but to make her drink it forcefully.

It was easy since she was too weak to resist.

Swoosh-

As soon as she drank the potion, her arm began regenerating.

Her malnourished body also started regaining some vitality.

"Wow."

They said only the rarest top-grade potions could regenerate severed body parts.

Seeing it with my own eyes was quite amazing.

"What...?"

The woman gaped at her growing arm.

Someone who didn't know about potions would naturally be more surprised.

**

The woman who returned from death's door was named Song Harin.

We moved forward with her guidance.

Thanks to her help, we learned a lot about the cave.

"Is this a laboratory?"

"Yeah. Weren't you experimented on too?"

Her gaze went to our beast-kin ears and tails.

As I suspected, we seemed to be in a world without beast-kin.

"Hmm... something similar happened."

"Tsk..."

She clicked her tongue and put her hand on my head.

Then she started explaining about the laboratory.

"This place..."

The cave was apparently a scientist's laboratory belonging to some organization.

A horrible organization that kidnapped people for human experiments.

'Hmm.'

Human experiments.

That feels familiar somehow.

I carefully watched Song Harin's expression before speaking.

"What kind of experiments did they do here?"

"...Ether. They forcibly injected it into people."

"Ether?"

"Yeah. A substance they discovered here. It's unstable, but they said if successful it could evolve living beings. Most failed though."

Just as she finished speaking.

"Raaawr!"

A horrible roar echoed from deep in the cave.

It was a terrifying sound that seemed impossible for an animal to make.

"...Those who failed the ether injection become like that. Ever heard of zombies?"

"Z-zombies...?"

"Yeah. They become monsters that lose their sense of self."

"......"

Becoming zombies from failed experiments.

Somehow this felt similar to my world?

"Hmm..."

As I was anxiously stroking my arm.

Choi Jinhyuk tapped my shoulder from behind.

"Gyeoul."

"Yes?"

When I turned around, Choi Jinhyuk put his mouth near my ear.

He seemed to have something to tell me privately.

"...This might be your world."

"What...?"

I couldn't help but tilt my head at his whisper.

Though the situation was similar to my world, this world had some mana.

"But this world has mana? My world had none."

"I think ether might be what they call mana."

"Oh...?"

I froze in place at Choi Jinhyuk's words.

The shock left me lost in thought.

'Someone in my world discovered mana...?'

Even if discovered, they couldn't have used it.

People without mana in their bodies couldn't handle it.

'...Did they forcibly inject mana to try using it?'

What would happen if mana was forcibly injected?

With my limited knowledge, I couldn't know.

"What happens if you forcibly inject mana?"

"If you inject an unmanageable amount... most go berserk."

"...!"

Berserk.

It meant going wild and rampaging.

Did people in our world become zombies beyond just going berserk?

The side effects must have been worse since their bodies had no mana.

It felt like we'd taken a step closer to a big truth.

The shocking revelation sent chills down my spine.

"Were you successful with the ether injection?"

Choi Jinhyuk asked Song Harin.

She looked down at her regenerated left arm.

"...Half successful."

"Half?"

"Yes. One arm transformed horribly. When the mutation started spreading from the arm to my body, I..."

Song Harin squeezed her eyes shut, seemingly recalling terrible memories.

It looked like she had cut off her own arm.

"I'm... I'm sorry."

"It's okay. Thanks to that they considered me a failure... ah, the children look scared."

Was it because of all the frightening talk?

Levinas was trembling.

But her eyebrows were raised high.

"Are you okay, Levinas?"

"Yeah! Levinas will endure even if scared! Because this is King's world!"

"...Thank you."

So Levinas was working hard for my world too.

My tail, which had drooped from shock, perked up slightly.

We continued walking through the cave.

After walking through the cave with no traps or monsters, we came upon an empty laboratory.

There were monitors but no computers.

A copier but no documents.

It felt like they'd taken only the important things and left.

"There's no one..."

No one here.

Just as I was about to say that.

"Grrrr."

Along with Gaeul's growl, heavy footsteps echoed from far away.

Maybe due to the lack of mana, we heard them late.

"Someone's coming. Sounds like whatever made that roar earlier..."

"Hide...!"

As soon as I finished speaking, Song Harin pulled us to hide under a desk.

At the same time, someone appeared by smashing through the laboratory wall.

'Ah.'

I hadn't expected them to break through the wall.

We almost got caught if we'd been a little slower.

Hidden under the desk with everyone else, I observed who had entered the laboratory.

They wore a typical white researcher's coat, but their body was grotesquely swollen like an orc's.

'What should we do?'

Could we win against such a monster with limited mana?

They seemed quite strong for a level two dungeon.

As I gripped my bow and thought about our options.

The one we thought was just a monster started speaking.

"Ex...periment, inject...inject..."

They looked around holding an unfamiliar device.

Was this the dungeon's boss?

I instinctively realized we'd need to defeat them to escape the dungeon.

Tap tap-

Saebyeok tapped my shoulder.

She signaled that she'd go first and wanted cover from behind.

"Okay."

When I nodded, Saebyeok ran out from under the desk without hesitation.

I quickly ran out with my bow too.

"No, don't!"

Not expecting us to charge at the monster, Song Harin screamed from behind.

And then, boom!

Along with the scream, Saebyeok and the monster collided.

The one that went flying was... none other than the monster.