I'm a Young God, so Please Raise Me - Chapter 13

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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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Chapter 13
Gwak Han-muk’s mouth fell open.
“…Wow.”
He rushed over in a single bound and clapped me on the shoulder with a satisfying thud.
“I’ve only ever been called a madman, never actually been one myself.”
Gwak Han-muk grinned, his sharp canines flashing, and praised me.
“You’re genuinely insane.”
“Thank you.”
When I offered my gratitude, he laughed with a hearty cackle.
I even picked up a baseball bat for Gwak Han-muk and gave it to him as a gift.
Emboldened by his enthusiastic support, I laid out my plan.
“There are people occupying the convenience store.”
The ones who had seized the large convenience store had committed every crime imaginable in this zombie world—murder, arson, looting, you name it.
There were about five or six of them, and if left unchecked, they would be the ones holding back players throughout DeZomDeal.
Bad enough that zombies seemed preferable by comparison.
In an apocalyptic world where law and order had collapsed, vigilante justice was a necessary evil.
Eliminating them early on was the fastest route to clearing the zone.
“Let’s go.”
After hearing the rough outline, Gwak Han-muk asked nothing further and tucked the baseball bat under his arm.
I led Gwak Han-muk, who followed along leisurely, to our destination. The large convenience store’s name was remarkably straightforward.
Dead Convenience Store
The clean glass front made the interior completely visible.
The zombies in DeZomDeal had degenerated vision and smell, responding only to sound, which was why the windows remained uncovered.
The moment I recognized the convenience store, a system window appeared.
◆Main Quest: Drive out the group occupying the Dead Convenience Store.
You have chosen to make a reckless attempt for the sake of a faster clear.
The convenience store’s occupants, always seething with rage, are formidable opponents who would love nothing more than to turn you into zombie snacks.
However, you believe that with a strong ally, this adventure might just succeed.
The system window was speaking truth. This was something I would never have attempted alone.
But now I had something solid to rely on.
“There it is.”
The moment I pointed at the convenience store, Gwak Han-muk shot forward like an arrow.
Crash!
The baseball bat swung in a satisfying arc, shattering the convenience store’s front glass, and Gwak Han-muk burst through alongside the shower of shards.
The men lounging against the display shelves scrambled to their feet, weapons in hand. Some of them were even holding guns—where they’d gotten them was anyone’s guess.
But it meant nothing before Gwak Han-muk.
Bang!
The gunshot echoed through the space.
The bullet that flew struck nothing but an innocent bag of snacks.
The poor potato chips exploded beyond recognition, and immediately after, the baseball bat came down on a head.
With a sharp crack, the man holding the gun crumpled to the ground.
Gwak Han-muk caught the falling weapon with effortless grace.
He tucked the gun into his waistband and swung a baseball bat at the hesitant men before him.
One man took the full force of the swing and flew like a baseball, toppling a display shelf. Spicy chicken-flavored instant noodles cascaded down upon him.
Gwak Han-muk leaped off the fallen shelf and delivered a clean, precise kick that caught the man fumbling with his knife.
There was a vast difference between a professionally trained soldier and men in their early twenties who hadn’t even served in the military yet.
It was a gap too embarrassing to even mention.
I watched comfortably from behind, and whenever the men writhing on the floor tried to get up, I simply swung the baseball bat to lay them back down.
The man who had been beaten first by Gwak Han-muk spoke through painful gasps.
“Damn it… what the hell are you bastards doing….”
Oh!
I rushed toward the man.
I rescued the spicy chicken-flavored instant noodles just before they could be soaked in his blood.
That precious food supply had nearly been ruined.
After turning the cup noodles over to confirm it was undamaged, I asked back.
“Why does that even matter?”
The man stared up at me with wide eyes. I tilted my head and spoke.
“Knowing who I am won’t extend the life of someone who’s already dead.”
“What? …Ugh!”
As the man opened his mouth to shout something in bewilderment, I gave him a solid hit with the baseball bat.
The man could no longer utter any unnecessary words and quietly lost consciousness.
Gwak Han-muk was still in the thick of it.
As I tidied up the scattered supplies and waited, it wasn’t long before only the groans of unconscious men filled the convenience store.
Victory achieved against the occupiers of the Dead Convenience Store!
It couldn’t have been a cleaner victory.
Gwak Han-muk checked the victory notification on the system window and smacked his lips with satisfaction.
“That’s it?”
He swung the baseball bat through the air as if disappointed.
“Captain Gwak, you’re the best.”
I gave him a double thumbs up.
I’d love to use your services again in the future, Captain.
Gwak Han-muk laughed at my sincere flattery for the future. He rested the baseball bat on his shoulder and spoke.
“Hell yeah, that was fun. Goyo, want to do this again sometime?”
There would be plenty of opportunities for him to shine at DeZomDeal anyway.
Smashing zombies hard, breaking zombies into pieces, launching zombies far away, and so on.
I was pleased at having given him work suited to his talents when the system window appeared.
You continue to hesitate about registering ‘Mo Hae-in’.
However, registration is an essential process for growth as a system.
You think it wouldn’t be a bad idea to take on a little risk and register ‘Gwak Han-muk’ first.
Will you register ‘Gwak Han-muk’?
Since I hadn’t registered Mo Hae-in, I was now watching her compromise on her own.
Accustomed to ignoring system windows, I picked up the backpack that had fallen to the floor.
Backpack acquired. Portable inventory capacity expanded.
DeZomDeal had no basic inventory, so I had to farm backpacks out of necessity.
It was a design choice meant to enhance realism, but having to manually gather supplies was incredibly tedious.
I began stuffing rations into the backpack. I was reaching for a cup of spicy chicken noodles when I suddenly noticed the packaging.
Spicy chicken flavor born from the fiery grave of ■■■!
It looked similar to Korean cup noodles, but the text on the packaging was peculiar.
When I checked the item description in the game, it only briefly mentioned what flavor it was.
Since I was seeing the packaging for the first time, I examined the other foods around me more carefully.
Tuna mayo fished from the boiling river of ■
Salmon mayo fished from the foaming river of ■
The triangle kimbap was equally grim. If this weren’t a zombie world, I wouldn’t want to touch it with a single fingertip based on those descriptions.
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
Gwak Han-muk, who had grabbed a chocolate candy, tore open the wrapper and shoved it into his mouth as he asked.
“The descriptions are all so strange.”
“Trials are always like that.”
True, item descriptions were often bizarre.
While I gathered rations, Gwak Han-muk tossed a couple of snacks into my backpack, then neatly bound up the convenience store occupiers and stacked them in a corner.
Once he finished organizing, he cracked his knuckles with a sharp snap.
“So should we kill these bastards?”
“There’s no need for you to go to the trouble, Captain. They’re useful to us.”
The rations seemed sufficient for the three of us to share. I shouldered the backpack and looked out the window.
“Uuugghhh….”
Zombies who had heard the gunshots were dragging their feet toward the convenience store. There were easily dozens of them converging.
“Let’s feed the zombies before we go.”
I repaid in kind what the convenience store occupiers had done—kidnapping survivors from the Green Zone.
I used them as bait.
Gwak Han-muk and I escaped safely past the horde of zombies. Watching him devour the zombies, I let out a soft whistle.
“Now we should head to the Green Zone and rendezvous with Captain Mo.”
“Yes.”
He answered obediently and followed behind me when he suddenly asked.
“You’re twenty-four?”
“Yes.”
“That makes you seven years younger than me.”
Click.
The sound of a gun being chambered echoed.
I stopped in my tracks. Hoping I was wrong, I slowly turned around.
“Even knowing this trial is some kind of infinite, repeating illusion… when it actually happens right before your eyes.”
But his gun barrel was pointed directly at me.
“Even aptly-trained operatives from Sidaecheong struggle to act so decisively without hesitation.”
Gwak Han-muk made shooting sounds with his mouth, mimicking gunfire.
“And Goyo just casually feeds people to zombies?”
Now that he mentioned it, his suspicion held merit. But it was because of the trial—if it weren’t for that, I would have….
Hmm.
Recalling Park Sung-gyeon, who had become golden fireworks, I corrected my thoughts.
“I suppose I’m rather cold-blooded by nature.”
“Rather?”
“Well, I need to survive too, after all.”
Gwak Han-muk laughed with a genuine chuckle.
My answer didn’t seem bad, but I couldn’t be certain it would pass muster with Captain Gwak.
Gwak Han-muk was the type who could laugh like that one moment and pull the trigger the next.
“I simply have clear priorities.”
I spoke slowly as I approached Gwak Han-muk.
I stood directly in front of his gun barrel.
“And Captain Gwak is included in my priorities.”
Gwak Han-muk stared at me intently. I answered the question in his eyes.
“We’re a team.”
Since we’re on the same side, stop suspecting me now. I don’t stab my own teammates in the back.
I couldn’t say it outright, but Gwak Han-muk would certainly understand what I meant.
He laughed heartily and tucked his gun into his baseball jacket.
“Goyo hyung is something else.”
I wasn’t sure why he called me that, but I answered readily.
“Thank you for trusting me.”
If he’d kept that gun barrel pointed at me, things would have gotten complicated in many ways. I was grateful he hadn’t. I didn’t want to have to blow Gwak Han-muk’s head off.
I took Gwak Han-muk to the Gun Shop.
The Gun Shop was originally a place where you could only learn its hidden location and access method after completing all sorts of miscellaneous quests within the game.
But I guided Gwak Han-muk there as if it were my own home, and he looted items as if it were his.
There was something oddly pleasant about the way Gwak Han-muk followed without complaint.
I hadn’t given Sidaecheong a proper explanation.
Samra knew that I had experienced the trial and the people involved through the game.
Yet Sidaecheong had made no inquiries since forming the Special Task Force.
Gwak Han-muk was the same. He said nothing as I laid out strategy guides and rare item locations.
‘As long as I can close the trial, nothing else matters to them.’
Their attitude made it abundantly clear they intended to use me as a tool.
I knew Sidaecheong prioritized pragmatism, but it certainly didn’t feel like a government agency.
By the time we finished farming at the Gun Shop, the sun was already setting.
With an additional duffel bag slung over my shoulder, I turned my back to the crimson sunset and headed toward the Green Zone.
Zombies move slowly during the day, but their speed increases at night.
If I didn’t want to engage in a chase with sprinting zombies, it was best to reach the Green Zone before nightfall.
DeZomDeal is divided into four zones.
The Green Zone—a safe area where survivors reside.
Here, zombies appeared only rarely and in such small numbers that survivors could manage them.
The Yellow Zone was where players initiated the game, and it was where zombies began to emerge in earnest. During the day, their numbers were manageable, but they doubled at night.
The Red Zone teemed with zombies regardless of day or night.
And finally, the Dead Zone.
The Dead Zone was perpetually shrouded in darkness even when the sun hung in the sky, and it spawned entities known as “Dead Zombies.”
These were zombies far superior in strength and speed compared to ordinary ones.
The Research Facility—our delivery destination—was located within the Dead Zone.
By conventional standards, a player could only begin deliveries after cultivating sufficient power.
Of course, that wasn’t my approach.
Before entering the Green Zone.
I asked Gwak Han-muk to do something he was genuinely suited for.
Gwak Han-muk found it immensely entertaining and readily agreed to my request.
Upon entering the Green Zone, the number of lurking zombies noticeably decreased.
The survivors had gathered at the Elementary School.
Guards stationed at the barbed-wire-wrapped iron gate cast wary glances toward us.
A mere couple of them raising their guns was nothing to me now. I opened my backpack to display its contents.
Their eyes widened at the sight of the backpack brimming with provisions.
“I have information about food supplies. Could you please call for a woman named Samra? She should have arrived here today.”
Suspicion and doubt crumbled before the promise of food. One of them bolted inside without hesitation.
Not long after, a man who appeared to be in his fifties emerged, accompanied by several subordinates.
“Where did you get all this food?”
Mo Hae-in was nowhere to be seen.
Gwak Han-muk and I exchanged glances.
There was no way Mo Hae-in could be prevented from leaving by these pathetic men.
The fact that she remained silent despite surely being aware of the commotion outside meant only one thing.
She hadn’t reached the Green Zone.
Why?
It made no sense, which only deepened my suspicion.
Gwak Han-muk furrowed his brow and lowered his voice to whisper to me.
“Captain Mo… I think she got bitten by a zombie.”

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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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