Chapter 140: Drunken Lady
"What’s with the ruckus downstairs, yawn~ I finished a whole bottle of vodka by myself... Don’t make me come down please, you shithead zombies~"
The voice was sonorous and pretty, cutting through the heavy, metallic stench of fresh gore and burnt meat on the third floor.
Before the echoes of the lazy complaint could fade, the rhythmic, familiar clatter of small heels clicking against concrete traveled down the passage.
Almost immediately, a second voice resounded—higher, sharper, carrying the distinct cadence of a child trying to keep her temper in check.
"Big sis, stay silent! You’re attracting zombies!"
"Shhhhh~ You silent~" The older, more mature voice answered with another long, exaggerated yawn.
Her teasing words were accompanied by a sudden, frantic clacking of shoe leather, followed by a muffled squeak and a dull thud against the wall as if someone had completely misjudged their footing and barely avoided tumbling headfirst down the steps.
It was glaringly obvious that she was completely drunk out of her mind.
A moment later, the source of the commotion stepped unsteadily into the dim glow of the hallway fixtures.
The woman looked like an ethereal apparition dropped straight into an abattoir.
She was dressed in an oversized graphic tee that hung past her thighs and a pair of loose, baggy jeans rolled up slightly at the cuffs. Her skin was as fair as fresh milk, smooth, radiant, and without a single blemish or scratch despite living through the apocalypse.
Her hair fell in soft, loose waves of pastel pistachio green, framing a youthful, delicate face with striking azure eyes that shimmered with a soft, watery haze.
On her feet, she was wearing a pair of low-heeled designer shoes, their hard soles producing the sharp, rhythmic clicks that had heralded her descent.
By every standard of physical appearance, she resembled a gorgeous, otherworldly fantasy elf—lacking only the signature pointed ears. However, any aura of mystical grace evaporated the exact second she tried to take another step.
The moment she appeared on the landing, she stumbled two steps lower, throwing out a slender arm to grip the metal handrail for dear life, swaying on her feet with a dizzy giggle.
"Whoop... There’s just two... And five on the floor." She blinked several times, her long eyelashes fluttering as her unfocused, hazy blue eyes swept over the hallway, fixing onto the forms of Selene and Charlie.
"Big sis, there are several zombie corpses too..." A tired, exasperated voice muttered from behind her, accompanied by a sharp click of a tongue.
A small figure appeared on the steps just behind the drunk woman, pausing instantly as her gaze locked onto Fredrinn and Rose standing near the center of the hallway.
The girl appeared to be merely eight years old. She wore a wide-brimmed straw sunhat and a clean, adorable pink floral sundress that seemed completely untouched by the apocalypse.
However, her bright eyes were glowing with a faint, steady azure light, pulsing with pure, concentrated mana as she bypassed the humans entirely to stare at Rose with immense, analytical curiosity.
"That doesn’t look like a zombie," the kid murmured thoughtfully. Her sharp gaze flicked down toward Selene and Charlie, who weren’t even paying the slightest bit of attention to the two new humans.
Their entire focus remained locked onto their absolute orders: keeping the remaining five pinned zombies firmly pinned to the carpet.
Fredrinn observed the strange pair, leaning back slightly with a look of intrigue.
’Hmm, Billy did say that there were two humans staying on the seventh floor. Maybe these two?’
He didn’t even need to activate his mana vision or strain his senses to know that they were both Awakened—and exceptionally strong ones at that.
In a world where ordinary survivors were huddled behind cafeteria barricades crying for their lives, these two were wandering through infested stairwells wearing sundresses and drinking entire bottles of vodka.
"Zombies~ I am coming to kill you~ Don’t run~" The green-haired woman cheered loudly with childish glee when she saw Selene and Charlie holding the thrashing creatures down.
Without waiting for her little sister, she skipped casually down the remaining steps, totally unconcerned by the slippery pools of blood or the very real risk of losing her footing again in her drunken stupor.
Rose’s crimson eyes narrowed instantly. Her lips flattened into a cold line, unwilling to watch her prized, high-tier puppets get destroyed by an interloper.
"Selene, defend," Rose commanded casually, her voice smooth and cold.
By the time the drunken woman reached the bottom landing, the air in the corridor violently shifted.
To everyone’s shock, thick, vibrant vines began to burst directly from the woman’s right arm, twisting rapidly around her skin and spiraling outward past her knuckles, weaving together into a dense, tightly wound spear tipped with a jagged point of hardened wood.
Although the entwined vines appeared to be an ordinary mixture of earthy green and brown bark—looking almost fragile, like dead brambles that could be snapped over a knee—Fredrinn’s sharp senses recognized the deception immediately.
Packed deep within the fibrous core was a massive concentration of condensed mana. The sheer density was terrifying, more than capable of standing against a Tier 4.
With a slurred giggle, the woman thrust the botanical weapon straight toward Selene’s chest with blinding speed.
Selene’s dead eyes flashed. Obeying Rose’s order, she brought the broken piece of Fredrinn’s blade upward in a sharp, reflexive diagonal arc, meeting the wooden tip with mechanical precision.
CLANG!
The force sent Selene skidding backward across the slick, blood-covered tiles, the friction burning through the soles of her sneakers.
Because she had been forced to disengage to block the heavy blow, the zombies she had been holding down were abruptly released.
The two freed creatures scrambled upright instantly, their jaws gnashing as they lunged violently toward the drunken woman, desperate to tear into her fresh flesh.
"Oho~ Is that really a zombie???" The drunken woman murmured in a daze, swaying on her heels as she blinked rapidly at Selene.
From the faint grayish tint of her skin, Selene carried the unmistakable mark of an infected. However, her limbs were intact, her pale flesh lacked the rotting sores or exposed muscle of typical undead, and she carried herself with the poise of a healthy, if slightly sickly, teenage girl.
The young girl still standing near the bottom of the staircase squinted her glowing azure eyes, her voice turning sharp and cautious. "She’s a zombie indeed, but different from the rest. Be careful, big sis! We might find the rock in her too!"
"Oho~ That would be quite niceee~" The green-haired woman smirked, her syllables slurring together as she pivoted fluidly on her heel.
Without even turning her head to look, she drove her vine spear straight backward into the eye socket of an incoming Tier 2 zombie.
The hardened wooden tip punched straight through bone with a wet pop, killing the monster instantly before she effortlessly ripped the weapon free.
Fredrinn hummed softly under his breath, watching the sisters operate.
’Find a rock in her? Did they find a zombie core too?’ His mind pieced together the puzzle quickly. ’Interesting... So they’re already strong enough to defeat Tier 4s on their own? Humans in this world are growing stronger way too fast. If things keep progressing like this and I don’t ramp up my own strength, these anomalies might actually match or surpass me.’
[ <LUST> groans in denial. There’s no way that would happen soon, host. It complains that host holds back too much. ]
Fredrinn shrugged inwardly, brushing off the entity’s haughty attitude.
’I don’t think there’s any reason for me to show off when I can get things done with the bare minimum effort. Why should I stick out like a sore thumb just for the sake of stroking my ego?’
Lust didn’t even bother to respond to his practical mindset.
Meanwhile, the drunken woman had already sidestepped a second Tier 2, whipping her vine arm around to crush its skull against the wall with brutal, casual force.
With two targets down, her hazy eyes drifted toward Charlie. The massive zombie brute was still kneeling on the floor, holding down the remaining thrashing monsters with pure physical mass.
Because Rose had only commanded Selene to defend, Charlie didn’t lift a single finger to protect himself. He simply remained stationary, executing his original task like an unmoving machine.
The green-haired beauty raised her spear, preparing to plunge the weapon directly into Charlie’s unprotected spine.
Fredrinn decided he had seen enough of the chaotic farce. He casually extended his right hand toward the drunk woman, mana circulating through his mana circuit with effortless grace.
Before her weapon could pierce the brute, an invisible ripple tore through the corridor. Fredrinn released a concentrated, non-lethal wave of supersonic kinetic vibration directly into her path.
"Dodge, big sis!" The little girl on the stairs screamed frantically.
It was an incredible reaction. Fredrinn’s sound-based frequencies were completely invisible to normal senses, leaving no visual trace except for a micro-distortion of light.
Yet the child’s glowing azure eyes had clearly tracked the mana flow in real time.
Instinct kicking in over the alcohol haze, the green-haired woman leaned her entire upper body backward in an unnatural, fluid bend.
The invisible shockwave sliced through the empty space an inch above her nose, striking the heavy concrete wall behind her with a dull, hollow BOOM that cracked the plaster.
She stumbled back onto her feet, blinking away the lingering dizziness as her blue eyes hardened, glaring across the narrow hallway straight at Fredrinn.
"Why did you attack me?" she demanded in a low, dangerous tone, the playful drunkenness temporarily suppressed by raw hostility. "Are you with these zombies too, huh? No wonder you’re standing so close to that female zombie and she’s still not trying to kill you. Traitor~!"
"Relax a little," Fredrinn said with an easygoing, disarming smile. He raised both hands to chest height in a casual gesture of surrender, projecting an aura of complete harmlessness.
With a slight, graceful flick of his wrist, he gestured toward the demonic beauty leaning affectionately against his side.
"This is Rosaline. She looks a little different, but she’s my wife and capable of controlling the zombies. So... don’t be alarmed."