A Korean Office Worker Who Became a Nuisance Villainess in a Zombie Story - Chapter 61

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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“Aaahhh!”
“Your Highness!”
Let go! Let go!
I thrashed, shaking the zombie off my ankle.
The rope I’d barely managed to grip trembled violently.
“Argh! Argh!”
Have you ever tried supporting your own body weight with just arm strength?
It’s not easy at all!
Especially not when a zombie is clinging to your foot!
An ominous sound emanated from the precariously swaying rope.
Creak.
“Aaahhh!”
The rope, unable to bear the weight of two people, was beginning to snap.
“Ugh, ugh, ugh….”
The rope fraying apart.
My arm strength slipping away.
The zombie shaking my body as it sank its teeth into my shoe.
Even as I tried to stay still, this cursed zombie kept—!
I squeezed my eyes shut, my gaze having unconsciously drifted downward.
If I fell from here, it would be instant death.
Crackle-crackle-creak.
“Please… please, no…!”
Snap.
“Aaahhh!”
The rope snapped with anticlimactic finality.
A firm hand seized my wrist as I plummeted.
“Your Highness!”
It was Praha.
Praha’s large hand gripped my wrist with unyielding strength.
All I could see in the darkness were those amber eyes fixed upon me.
With a single hand, he hauled me up—along with the zombie dangling from my foot.
“My foot! There’s a zombie on my foot!”
“I know!”
First one hand, then both.
I squeezed through the narrow opening, barely wide enough for one person, head-first.
As I emerged, I felt the zombie’s breath near my ankle, its teeth about to sink in.
“Aaahhh!”
I kicked with all my might, flinging it away.
Crash!
The zombie’s head struck the opening with a sickening crunch.
My body lay sprawled across the 1st Floor.
Without even looking at whoever was lunging toward me, I lashed out with my foot.
“Get off!”
“My lady!”
“Get off! Get off! Argh!”
My wild kick connected squarely with the attacker’s shoulder.
“Ugh.”
Only then did I realize it wasn’t a zombie—it was Praha.
Even though I’d kicked with all my strength, he didn’t budge, merely frowned slightly before pinning me down and shielding me with his body.
Splurt!
Blood rained down upon us.
Tangerine severed the zombie’s head that had climbed onto me.
Thanks to Praha blocking with his entire body, blood didn’t splatter across my face.
“….”
“Are you alright, my lady?”
“Why did you come….”
I’m insanely grateful that you did….
The God of Light told us to abandon the missing members of our party.
Why did you come to rescue me?
And why am I crying?
My eyes and nose, reddening in an instant, pressed against Praha’s chest.
Praha no longer carried that soap-like scent from before.
Now there was only the smell of blood and faint perspiration.
Yet oddly, it brought me comfort.
“Why did you really come?”
He was calling me by name just moments ago, so why suddenly “my lady” again?
“You should have abandoned me. That’s what the instructions said.”
I was terrified he’d actually left me behind, yet here I am speaking so glibly.
I lifted my head from Praha’s embrace. When I looked up at his handsome face and our eyes met, he said:
“There’s something else worth abandoning.”
The playful smile that accompanied those words was uncharacteristically mischievous for Praha.
Thump.
Something settled deep within my heart.
‘I thought he wouldn’t come.’
Perhaps I should have…
trusted my companions more.
“…Were you worried? That Yusara disappeared?”
Now that things are looking up, even this terrible joke comes to mind.
‘You don’t understand why that’s funny, do you? Because you don’t speak Korean.’
Praha pulled me into his embrace without a word, as I laughed.
Meanwhile, I…
‘This is no time to be lying around!’
I pushed away Praha, who was cradling me, and bolted upright.
I turned to Yujein beside me.
“How did you know I was there?”
“When you were summoned, we were immediately summoned directly above the tomb where you fell!”
In other words…
“Right in front of the exit!”
Right in front of the exit.
If I abandoned my missing companions, I could escape through it immediately.
But if I didn’t abandon them…
“The moment we opened the underground door to save you, that descended in front of the exit.”
I turned my head in the direction Yujein was pointing.
Sure enough, I could see the exit ahead.
The end of the Maze.
And iron bars had descended right in front of it.
“Praha! Did you rescue Yusara?! Then let’s figure out what to do now!”
But there was no time for leisurely despair.
“Shrieeeek!”
“Shriek!”
Zombies were swarming toward us from the opposite direction.
On the left, the advancing horde of zombies.
On the right, the exit sealed by descended iron bars.
The price of defying the God of Light’s warning to abandon my missing companions.
And…
“I hate to add more misfortune, but the hourglass…”
The hourglass too had very little sand remaining.
“Danger!”
Cyprus, who was closest to the zombies, shoved Yujein backward.
Zombie corpses littered the area—evidence of a fierce battle already fought.
“Shrieeeek!”
“Not so fast!”
Cyprus’s blade cleaved through the neck of the first zombie that rushed forward.
Had the wound on his shoulder reopened?
Blood glinted faintly through the tattered fabric of his clothes.
Meanwhile, the horde of zombies that surged past Cyprus rushed toward us…
“Fall back!”
Praha and Tangerine joined the fray to confront the zombies.
But everyone knew the truth.
This would never end like this.
I turned toward the iron bars.
The bars that even Praha’s magical rope couldn’t cut through.
The stone wall beside them.
“Your Highness! Do you still have the magical rope?!”
The moment the question left my lips, Praha tossed the rope toward me. I snatched it from the air.
As I unraveled the coiled rope, it stretched to roughly fifty centimeters.
This would be the last time I could use it.
Rope in hand, I rushed straight toward the iron bars.
“It’s useless!”
“I know!”
I wasn’t trying to break the bars!
I pulled the single remaining arrow from the quiver on my back.
The iron arrow I’d obtained from Praha.
I’d watched this arrow pierce through stone walls and embed itself countless times.
I wound the magical rope tightly around the arrowhead. Being an iron arrow, the shaft was thick as well. After wrapping it multiple times to ensure it wouldn’t slip, I brought it down hard.
Against the stone wall beside the iron bars.
Crash!
“It works!”
Break!
Realizing my intention, Yujein rushed over and began clawing at the stone with her own hands.
“Yujein! Use your sword!”
“I don’t have one!”
“It’s at my side!”
Striking with arrowhead and blade. Kicking with my feet. Clawing with my hands.
‘The God of Light won’t let me leave?’
Then I’ll smash my way out!
I should have brought a pickaxe for this!
‘It’s ironic that a saint like Yujein is destroying her own god’s maze!’
Crash! Crack!
Normally it would have been impossible, but fortunately, removing the sacred object had weakened the divine power permeating the maze.
I managed to carve out a hole just large enough for one person to squeeze through, then shouted to the three others.
“This way!”
The three who had been fighting the zombies immediately rushed toward me.
Me?
I was already beyond the hole and running!
Holding Yujein’s hand!
“Run!”
“Your Highness! The zombies are following us!”
“I know! But this place is about to collapse!”
The time remaining in my palm—there really isn’t much left now!
10, 9, 8, 7….
“What?!”
“This is faster!”
Cyprus came rushing from behind me and scooped me up without losing any momentum.
He continued running at that same undiminished speed.
Beside us, I could see Praha carrying Yujein and running just as hard.
6, 5….
The ceiling crumbled.
“Ugh!”
Tangerine staggered as a falling stone struck her head.
“Tangerine!”
“I’m fine!”
Rumble.
The exit sealed shut.
Thick dust billowed everywhere.
Light drew closer.
4, 3, 2, 1….
Boom.
0.
“How did those bastards escape?!”
“The countdown was quite long!”
“Still, that’s no excuse!”
“Huff, huff….”
We had escaped the Maze around sunset.
Now night had fallen.
“Put me down already!”
“I don’t want to!”
Yujein and I were still being carried by the men as they ran.
Even while running, Tangerine deftly gauged our direction and told us this was the opposite side of the entrance we’d used to come in, and that an Abandoned Temple lay just ahead.
“What god’s Temple is it?!”
“I can’t remember!”
Not that it mattered anyway!
What mattered was the zombies charging after us through this dark Stone Mountain without slipping once!
“Kyaaaah!”
If we slowed down even slightly, they’d grab us by the hair. That’s why Cyprus and Praha refused to put us down.
Sweat poured from Cyprus’s body like rain as he held me.
He was reaching his limit.
“The Temple is in sight!”
“But what good will it do to go inside?!”
“At least we can close the doors!”
“There must be a basement!”
I steadied my violently spinning head and forced my eyes to focus.
A building devoid of light, fractured and crumbling in places, yet its white walls bore a faint, ethereal sheen.
A boundary stone stood ahead.
A marker stone proclaiming this as the Temple’s domain.
The moment I crossed that boundary stone.
“Screech!”
“…What?”
The zombies that had been rushing toward me suddenly froze in place.
As if they’d struck something invisible.
An unseen barrier had materialized.
Precisely at the Temple’s perimeter.
“Grrrrr…”
The pursuing zombies encircled the boundary stone.
Still glaring at us, yet they refused to cross into the Temple’s territory.
“Huff, huff… Why won’t they come over?”
“What’s happening?”
The party members stopped and turned back in bewilderment.
Yujein cried out.
“This Temple still bears the God of Light’s blessing!”
“They recognize the divine domain?”
“Well.”
Either way, this worked out well.
Cyprus let out a hollow laugh.
Without a word, I grasped Cyprus’s forearm.
“You can put me down now, my lord.”
Cyprus smiled, observing me still perched upon his shoulders.
Moonlight filtered through the golden lashes framing his eyes, casting a shimmering shadow across his emerald irises.
“Careful.”
The moment my feet touched the ground, dizziness crashed over me.
I stumbled and braced myself against Cyprus’s chest.
“Are you quite dizzy?”
I leaned fully into Cyprus, who steadied my elbow.
Schink.
Then I drew the sword sheathed at Cyprus’s waist.
I pressed the blade against the throat of the man who had carried me through that desperate flight.
[Abandoned Temple]
Safe zone entered.
Survivors: Yusara, Praha, Cyprus, Yujein, Tangerine

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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