The Little Prince in the Ossuary

April Vengeance (7)

On the 11th floor deck, there was an onboard gym. There were three entrances: one staircase leading up to the 10th-floor deck, and two hallways that went into the ship's interior. The passage was narrow. It was an ideal place to face many with limited firepower. If done well, it might even be possible to block the hallway with corpses of mutants. Gyeo-ul had already experienced something similar at Atascadero State Hospital.

'Back then, it was actually more of a hindrance.'

Jumping over walls of living corpses here and there—he recalled chasing the Trickster when they first encountered one.

A bit deeper from the gym, there were a massage room and a fitness room. The massage room had a single entrance. The fitness room could only be accessed through the massage room.

There was still power supplied to the passenger cabins. And in the fitness room, there was a large audio system.

[Do you really think this will work?]

An FBI investigator raised a doubt about Gyeo-ul's plan to lure and trap the hungry things.

[The mutants' intelligence has increased a lot compared to before. The number of mutant groups attracted by the noise maker is decreasing every day. That proves it. Can we really lure them in with just a simple noise...?]

Noise maker. A sound-emitting device the Department of Defense installed in thousands of contaminated zones. In the beginning, mutants would swarm whenever it operated. Now it was different. Mutants had learned the noise patterns and no longer flocked together chaotically. Sometimes, they even destroyed the noise makers.

That didn't mean they were useless. After all, it was effective in covering up the noise made by the operation unit.

"Still, it's worth trying once. If it works, great; if not, we'll think of something else. With unidentified enemies hiding inside and not knowing the interior structure, it's burdensome to search recklessly. We have to minimize the risks as much as possible. How about your side? Is it still quiet?"

[Yes. I'm in a safe place, so... but I'm worried about you, first Lieutenant.]

She was inside a boiler room—not the kind that powered the engine, but the sort used to generate steam for the sauna. Each hallway to the gym had one of these.

If Gyeo-ul successfully lured the mutant group, she would immediately come out and pull down the fireproof bulkhead on the hallway side. It was to trap the enemy more securely.

"Then, let's begin."

After sending the radio message, Gyeo-ul flipped on the audio system. He needed to pick a song... Why was there classical music? Gyeo-ul tilted his head. Beethoven's "Symphony of Fate" felt wildly out of place among the yoga and aerobics titles. It must have been a test track.

This was lucky. It would be troublesome if it kept looping after the bait was over, but a symphony was long enough and would finish in a single play, which was optimal. He set it to maximum volume.

Kwakwakwa-ANG! Kwakwakwa-ANG!

An overwhelming sound. Even Gyeo-ul was startled by the sheer volume—it felt like being struck by the noise.

He quickly dashed and hid in the locker room. From there, he could count how many passed under the crack in the door. He put his ear to the floor to wait for approaching footsteps.

The footsteps overlapped and echoed. Judging by the distance, there were some on the same floor and some below.

The number was less than expected. It seemed even the Australian mutants had finished dividing their roles. The ones that showed up now were likely scouts from each subgroup. The light broadcasting in through the gap below the door wavered several times.

After they passed in, it went quiet. He needed to make them emit their unique howls—make them shout as they ran about, signaling that there was a new host here, that they needed to infect it. Without the searchers' howling, the rest of the horde wouldn't gather.

As expected, even after waiting, there were no additional signs.

'Come to think of it, weren't there a lot of mirrors in the fitness room?'

Could those things recognize a mirror? Their animalistic intelligence varied widely, after all. Gyeo-ul remembered dogs and cats being startled by their own reflections.

The mutants on this ship still had un-decayed skin. They were like newborn wild animals.

There might be a chance. Gyeo-ul cautiously pushed open the door. Fitting for a luxury cruise ship, the well-maintained hinges made no old, creaky sounds. The hallway was empty. Moving silently with his boosted "Movement," the boy pressed his back against the wall and checked the massage room.

One mutant was peeking in; the rest had gone into the fitness room. Approaching from behind, he twisted its head. Crack! Grabbing the jaw and the back of the skull, he snapped the neck instantly. It couldn't make a sound, only rolling its eyes to spot Gyeo-ul. A black tongue snaked out, wriggling like a worm.

Now Gyeo-ul looked at the mirror from a distance.

Kieeeeek!

Three mutants clung to the mirror. THUD! They smashed their fists, cracking the glass. As expected, they didn't seem to grasp the concept of a mirror yet. Gyeo-ul turned away without hesitation and ran. Maybe feeling sorry to see the boy vanish into an unreachable world, the mutants shattered the mirror with more pounding.

The bait worked almost too well.

How long had it been since the searchers moved back down the hallway? An overwhelming number and mass surged in—far beyond his initial expectations. He had planned to seal the fitness and massage rooms with the bulkhead once they were filled, but the mutants overflowed and packed the hallway completely.

[First Lieutenant, what's the situation? Have you blocked off that passage?]

"No, wait a minute. There are so many that now I'm trapped instead."

[What?!]

The FBI investigator was startled.

[Are you alright?!]

"For now."

[Do you have any way out?]

"Hmm, well, there are two options. I can either barricade in here until they disperse, or try and push through with a forced breakout."

Both were risky choices. In the first case, there was no guarantee that the mutants would simply scatter. Beasts in packs acted in an organized way. If they began searching the surroundings, he'd have no choice but to defend himself while isolated. Even if he survived, he'd burn through a lot of ammo.

The second option was even more dangerous. What Gyeo-ul was hoping for was that mutants, packed into a limited space, would get in each other's way.

'Though I can't exactly trust that alone.'

The investigator was also negative.

[It's too dangerous! I'll lure them away instead!]

"Don't. That's even riskier."

With this number, even Gyeo-ul couldn't guarantee his survival if he got caught, despite the boost to his combat power before boarding. No matter how strong one person got, the limits were obvious. In a confined environment, being overwhelmed by sheer numbers would be meaningless. If even one of his combat techniques had reached god-level, maybe things would be different.

A commotion of destructive noises echoed about. Gyeo-ul quietly pushed the door, peering through a narrow gap. It was brief. He shut the door and sighed.

Something was sniffing around like a dog. Was it an individual with a heightened sense of smell? Could it really track him down to here? And if so, how long until he was discovered?

At that moment, another radio transmission came in.

[I think I can help you.]

The investigator said she'd blow up the boiler.

[If I dial the pressure to max and set explosives on the pipes and the walls, then detonate, with a boiler this size, steam should fill the whole hallway. It'd work as a smokescreen. And since it's steam, there's minimal fire risk. I'd like your opinion, first Lieutenant.]

Gyeo-ul had considered a smokescreen too. He just didn't have enough smoke grenades. With two smoke bombs, he simply couldn't cover such a large space.

But if it was a boiler supplying steam to a massive sauna, it might just work.

Even if it failed, at least it would create a diversion.

"Alright. Let's try it. How long will it take?"

It would take time to raise the pressure. When he asked, the agent hesitated.

[I'm not sure. I've never operated this kind of machine before... I figured out the controls, though.]

"Understood. I'll wait."

[Do you think you can get out once there's cover?]

"Leave that to me."

[...]

Agent Gibson didn't ask any more.

He waited in silence. Thud, kwang! Somewhere, a door crashed apart. The mutants were searching relentlessly. The idea that the searchers might be seeing things, or hallucinating, was far beyond a beast's imagination. Despairing over imagined failures was a uniquely human trait.

Thump, thump, thump! Roughly breaking sounds drew closer and closer.

There was still no word from Agent Gibson. Well, it was a huge facility, so reaching max pressure must be taking considerable time. Yet that repeated thump, thump, thump kept echoing. It almost felt like part of the symphony.

It seemed there would be no avoiding a fight. Gyeo-ul checked his gear. It would be a battle with no room to stand. A single malfunction could mean death.

He had to hold out until the smokescreen filled the area.

If only there was more space, it would be a little better.

Finally, the sniffing sound pressed close to his back. From where he sat leaning against the door, it was as if someone was whispering in his ear. Gyeo-ul adjusted his position and placed his gun at the door. Tap. He deliberately bumped it lightly to make a small noise. Not enough to confirm anything, but not something that could be ignored, either. Tap-tap.

Then he counted silently. Newest update provıded by ⓝovelFire.net

Three, two, one.

Bang! The gunshot echoed indoors. Right after, a dull vibration reached up through the soles of his feet. It must've put a hole in the head of the sniffer. After all, he'd tapped to lure its ear to the door.

The door shook violently. A dark room, a shaking door—it forcibly brought back childhood memories. Even then, Gyeo-ul had been trapped in a room, door locked to keep the monster out. His drunken father had been that monster. He'd screamed in an inhuman voice and acted in inhuman ways.

It feels as if I've come home to a very familiar world.

Here, you can fight things that look human but aren't human. Even if it was an illusion, Gyeo-ul liked that.

No, he had liked it.

Gyeo-ul fired through the closed door. Bang, Bang, Bang! The goal was to pile up corpses in front of the door—it opened inward, so his escape route wouldn't be blocked. Although he'd have to break through a wall of dead bodies. Thick, sticky blood oozed in through the gap under the door.

Crunch! A hand burst in through a bullet hole. Its knuckles were dotted with white spots. Reflexively, he fired, but only cracked the bone. The filthy hand groped inside. Before it reached the doorknob, Gyeo-ul stabbed it with a knife—into the gap among the blotches, where muscle rather than bone filled the cracks.

Kyaaaaak!

A shriek from a special mutant with a nailed hand. Gyeo-ul emptied a magazine in the direction of the clearest sound. If he could take down the one with the exoskeleton, it wouldn't be a waste.

A hole battered open by sustained fire. Through it, Gyeo-ul met the gaze of a mutant on the other side. Only one eye was intact. Grrrrr—the monster growled with a blood-boiling voice. Gyeo-ul switched weapons. But just before the pistol flared, the monster abruptly ducked. THUMP! The door shook so wildly the hinges screamed.

Gyeo-ul braced the door with his foot and kept shooting.

Beethoven was still magnificently blaring.

--------------------------- Work Comments ---------------------------

#Q&A

Q. Guaaaaak: @How many times—just how many forty thousand years—would it take to read this whole work? lololol

A. Hmm... About ten times? They say you have to sleep ten nights to become an adult, after all.

Q. SiwonSeopseop: @In Spy Stars, tanks have the power of three high school girls. If we convert Gyeo-ul's combat power to high school girls, how many would it be?

A. It would vary a lot depending on the situation. In pure strength, he couldn't beat a tank, so probably less than three high school girls... haha.

Q. PAM: @Magic Conch Shell, how long can Gyeo-ul survive in this episode?

A. zkqkel: @Conch: No