Chapter 140: The City of the Dead
At midnight...
Behind the cabin, at the old woman’s grave.
A shadow quietly appeared.
"I never expected you to be buried here..."
"The Hero, Erika."
The voice belonged to a woman.
"You devoted your entire life to justice."
The mysterious woman slowly extended her hand.
"Now..."
"I’ll make you serve me instead."
A green light emerged from her outstretched hand.
The light gently descended onto the grave.
The soil began to tremble.
A skeletal hand suddenly burst through the earth.
Like a corpse rising from the dead...
Its bony arm...
Its skeletal body...
Its skull.
The mysterious woman smiled before letting out a quiet laugh.
"The you of today is far better than the one you were before..."
She turned around and began walking away.
"Follow me."
"I want to build an army for you."
A short while later...
Deep within the forest.
The skeleton silently followed behind the mysterious woman.
"It should be here..."
She stretched out her hand once more.
The same green light appeared again.
It descended into the ground.
The instant the light sank into the earth...
The surrounding land began shaking violently.
Bones started emerging from beneath the soil...
As though the dead themselves had risen once again.
They were the monsters Min-seo had slain long ago.
The only difference now...
Was that nothing remained except their skeletons.
There were dozens of them.
Fifty...
Sixty...
Seventy...
And they continued increasing in number.
One after another, they clawed their way out of the ground.
The mysterious woman laughed happily.
"Yes..."
"This is exactly what I wanted..."
She turned toward the skeleton standing behind her.
"Erika."
"I want you to lead this army."
"I have a mission for you..."
The mysterious woman’s eyes glowed crimson.
Several days later...
At night.
Jinhoo stood atop a building in Paris.
Not as himself...
But under Indigo’s identity.
He silently observed the city below.
Buildings lay in ruins.
Collapsed.
Abandoned.
Most horrifying of all...
Even the towering Eiffel Tower had fallen.
"This is an unpleasant sight..."
"It’s truly horrifying."
"I never imagined that the news of the princess’s death could lead to something like this..."
"But it’s suspicious."
"The princess never had any illness, nor did she have anyone who hated her."
"She was deeply loved by her people..."
’This is far too suspicious...’
’I’ve wanted to investigate this for a long time...’
’But I’ve been too busy these past few days to come here while the chaos was unfolding.’
He gazed across Paris.
The city had become eerily silent.
Like a city of the dead.
"There’s no one here."
"Even the streetlights aren’t on."
He jumped from the rooftop.
Landing softly on the deserted street...
He carefully examined his surroundings.
Searching for any sign of movement.
The only thing moving...
Were a few torn French flags fluttering in the cold night wind.
He continued walking.
"This really feels like one of those post-apocalyptic movies..."
"It’s terrifying."
His eyes eventually settled upon the presidential palace.
’I should start my investigation there.’
Without hesitation...
He teleported.
Appearing before the palace gates.
The entrance was heavily damaged.
Parts of it had already been smashed open.
He entered through the destroyed section.
As he slowly walked through the palace...
Jinhoo thought to himself.
’In this webtoon... France has two leaders.’
’A President and a King.’
’They possess equal authority.’
’The only difference is that the President focuses on foreign affairs and protecting the nation’s international standing...’
’While the King governs domestic politics.’
’When I first read this part, I thought it made absolutely no sense.’
’A President should be capable of handling both domestic and foreign affairs with the help of ministers.’
’But after seeing this world myself... I finally understood.’
’The French people themselves chose this system.’
’They believed it would reduce corruption.’
’Honestly... I agree with them.’
But...
There was one fatal flaw.
A lack of oversight.
That weakness caused crime rates to soar.
Then...
Princess Madeleine appeared.
Madeleine de Beaumont.
She was a princess capable of making even hardened criminals repent...
Not because they feared her.
But because they admired her.
The people adored her.
They trusted her completely.
Not without reason.
She treated everyone equally.
Whether they were rich or poor.
Clean or filthy.
Princess Madeleine always reached out to help them.
That was why...
The entire nation descended into chaos after news of her death spread.
’But that’s exactly what makes this suspicious.’
’The King should’ve known what would happen if Madeleine’s death became public.’
’If he truly understood the consequences... then why announce it?’
Jinhoo searched every room in the palace.
Entering them one by one.
Carefully observing every detail.
Finally...
He reached the last room.
A nameplate was attached to the door.
Madeleine’s Room
"...This is Madeleine’s room?"
He slowly opened the door.
The moment he stepped inside...
His eyes widened.
Lying motionless upon the bed...
Was Princess Madeleine.
"Madeleine...!"
"I can’t believe she’s really dead..."
He slowly approached her.
But as he drew closer...
He noticed something strange.
Her body was...
Glitching.
"Huh?"
Jinhoo reached for her hand.
His own hand passed straight through it.
"Huh!?"
Confused, he tried touching her face.
His hand passed through once again.
"This..."
"A hologram?"
"What is going on here!?"
He quickly scanned the room.
’If this is a hologram... there should be some kind of projector.’
He searched everywhere.
Yet found nothing.
’Strange...’
’There’s no projector at all...’
’Or maybe I haven’t searched thoroughly enough?’
His eyes shifted beneath the bed.
Feeling suspicious...
He knelt down.
"Aha!"
"There it is!"
He immediately grabbed the object.
Resting in his palm...
Was a tiny blue orb.
Jinhoo carefully examined it.
"I’ve never seen a projector this small before..."
"But it seems to operate using magic."
He looked toward Madeleine’s hologram.
Then back at the orb.
Without hesitation...
He clenched his fist.
The orb shattered.
When he opened his hand again...
Madeleine’s hologram disappeared.
"This wasn’t an accident."
"Someone planned all of this very carefully."
He stood up.
Just then...
A strange sound echoed from the palace entrance.
Jinhoo immediately sprinted toward it.
When he arrived...
He froze.
Hundreds...
No...
Thousands...
Of glowing green magic circles had appeared across the floor.
"W-What is happening...?!"
he muttered in disbelief.
From each magic circle...
The dead began to emerge.
Their skin was dark green.
Many were missing limbs.
Every single one of them had empty eye sockets.
Some wore noble attire.
Others wore knight armor.
Many dressed as ordinary citizens.
At that moment...
Jinhoo realized something.
"These are..."
"The people who died during that massive incident..."
The undead slowly turned toward him.
"Oops..."
"I guess I spoke a little too loudly..."
The undead immediately charged.
Without wasting another second...
Jinhoo leaped from the upper floor.
He landed atop one of the undead that had just emerged.
"Excuse me."
he casually said...
Before sprinting toward the palace entrance.
The moment he stepped outside...
He froze once again.
The dark night sky...
Had turned an ominous green.
The moon that had once illuminated the night...
Had become three glowing green moons.
"W-What is happening?!"
He quickly looked around.
The city that had once been empty...
Was now overflowing with undead.
’This must’ve been caused by the orb I destroyed...’
’It probably triggered all of this...’
Thousands of undead turned toward him.
Then...
They began chasing him.
Running...
Like living humans.
And they were incredibly fast.
"This feels just like a zombie movie..."
Jinhoo instantly teleported onto the palace rooftop.
Looking down, he sighed.
"Whew..."
"They won’t be able to reach me up here..."
"Now..."
"Where was I?"
he muttered while thinking.
He took out his phone.
But...
There was no signal.
"What?"
"When I first arrived here..."
"The signal was perfectly fine."
"I even called Donghyun to tell everyone I had something to take care of."
While his attention remained on his phone...
A hand suddenly grabbed the edge of the rooftop.
An undead had climbed all the way up.
It immediately lunged toward him.
But Jinhoo’s reflexes were extraordinary.
He instinctively dodged.
The undead lost its balance...
And fell back to the ground.
"Huh!?"
"How did it get up here?!"
"This roof is nearly twenty feet high!"
He looked down.
His expression stiffened.
The undead...
Were working together.
They stacked their own bodies like ladders.
Stepping on one another without hesitation...
Allowing the others to climb higher.
"They’re this intelligent?!"
"This is really dangerous..."
"I can’t fight all of them at once..."
"Even if I somehow manage to..."
"I’ll completely exhaust my energy and pass out afterward."
For the first time in a long while...
Jinhoo truly feared for his own life.
He couldn’t decide what to do.
One wrong move...
And he wouldn’t survive.
"Ugh..."
"I have no other choice."
"I’ll fight them."
The moment those words left his mouth...
Jinhoo leaped from the palace rooftop.
Using his teleportation at the last second to land safely without injury.
He faced the endless horde of undead.
"Alright..."
"Come at me."
"I’ll take every last one of you on!"