I'm a Young God, so Please Raise Me - Chapter 20
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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 20
I froze momentarily, still holding the cloth, then offered an awkward word of thanks.
“Thank you.”
Reviewing my own actions, I had to admit I’d thrown myself into things without restraint.
Yet I didn’t feel like I was overexerting myself.
If anything, it felt… rather enjoyable.
Of course, a peaceful everyday life without incident would be ideal.
But this wasn’t so bad either.
It seemed to stem from exploring the world of my favorite game in reality.
‘I’m learning things I never knew from the game….’
If only the Quest didn’t involve severed limbs, I’d be having an even better time.
I kept such thoughts to myself—Mo Hae-in would surely think me even more insane if I voiced them.
Instead of confessing my true feelings, I busied myself wiping my face with the cloth she’d handed me.
Seeing the red stains on the fabric, I understood why Mo Hae-in had regarded me as someone not in their right mind all this time.
While I cleaned myself up—looking far worse than any zombie—Mo Hae-in and Gwak Han-muk consumed some rations.
Well, Mo Hae-in had only a little, while Gwak Han-muk consumed quite a lot.
Gwak Han-muk stuffed snacks endlessly into his stomach before smacking his lips.
Despite eating so much, he didn’t appear particularly full.
“Please, feel free to eat more. There are plenty of places to find supplies.”
“No… I should be dieting….”
Gwak Han-muk mumbled something nonsensical before finally crunching on a lollipop stick.
I glanced away for a moment, and when I looked back, only an empty stick remained.
Gwak Han-muk, crouching and holding the candy stick between his fingers while staring blankly, broke into a grin when our eyes met, then stood up.
He tossed the stick to the ground and rubbed it with his foot.
It was an incomprehensible action—as if he were doing something with a lollipop stick instead of a cigarette.
While the three of us replenished our hunger and thirst gauges, Je Hyeon-o sat atop the jeep.
Since he was already infected with the BT-Z virus, he often fell outside the rules of Trial.
In DeZomDeal, he didn’t need to replenish hunger and thirst, and he couldn’t be infected even if bitten by zombies.
Had we entered Haspack, he likely wouldn’t have been able to equip the prosthetic limbs.
For that reason, Je Hyeon-o waited patiently for us to finish eating.
Watching him gaze down quietly from above, I felt somewhat like an animal in a zoo.
‘I hope the show is entertaining for him.’
Having benefited from Je Hyeon-o’s convenience, I found myself wanting to make a good impression on him.
But the moment our eyes met, Je Hyeon-o’s metal hand clicked and clacked like piano keys, so I immediately looked away.
It seemed best to stay out of his sight as much as possible.
After a brief meal and recovery, I packed only the essentials into my backpack.
Once the backpack was secured on my back, I checked the air conditioning system on the rooftop.
Fortunately, it remained undamaged and was running smoothly on emergency power.
I began the briefing for our entry into the Research Facility.
“Our first objective is to locate any surviving researchers.”
The Research Facility at DeZomDeal was a horizontally elongated structure consisting of two basement levels and five above-ground floors.
Unlike the National Institute of Infectious Diseases where Trial had hatched, it wasn’t divided into multiple research buildings—everything was concentrated in a single structure.
The 5th floor was the most critical, housing the high-risk pathogen Research Facility.
The Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) Research Facility was the vital location where DeZomDeal’s zombie virus vaccine would be researched.
“Normally, the surviving researchers would be hiding on the 3rd Floor, but given the changed circumstances, there’s a high probability they’re elsewhere.”
In the game, the Research Facility’s final surviving researcher is discovered hiding in a cleaning supply closet on the 3rd Floor.
The player provides food to the dying researcher and clears out the zombies, enabling access to the 5th Floor Research Lab.
The researcher opens the locked Research Facility and begins vaccine research.
From that point, the delivery Quest properly commences.
However, the current situation involved four surviving researchers.
It would be difficult for all of them to hide together in such a cramped closet.
“My prediction is… they’re likely already in the Research Facility. The 5th Floor.”
Since Je Hyeon-o had swept through the zombies early on, they would have grabbed supplies and built barricades to protect the most critical Research Facility during that time.
In that process, they probably encountered hidden zombies and sustained injuries.
But that’s merely speculation.
“Then if we don’t find them on the 5th Floor, we should check the 3rd Floor as well?”
Mo Hae-in immediately added her opinion.
“Yes. Just in case. And while confirming the researchers is important, we also need to quickly verify whether the true ending conditions are being met….”
Since I had to confirm that myself, I offered the most efficient suggestion.
“What if we split into two teams and conduct operations simultaneously?”
“Right. We should listen well to what Han Go-yo says.”
Following Gwak Han-muk, Mo Hae-in also nodded in agreement, showing a positive response.
I seized this momentum to quietly begin assigning team compositions.
‘Me and Captain Mo on the same team!’
I already had a plausible reason—we’d coordinated well at Haspack.
Moreover, Gwak Han-muk was well-suited to be on Je Hyeon-o’s team since he had the means to suppress him if he caused trouble.
“Then the teams would be….”
But I couldn’t finish my sentence.
Screeeech!
A horrible sound of metal scraping rang out. It was the sound of Je Hyeon-o’s metallic hand scratching the jeep.
Black wings moved slowly.
With a rustling sound, the feathers folded, and the wings disappeared from behind Je Hyeon-o’s back.
He hopped down from the jeep and approached me, standing at my side.
o o
It seemed to mean we should go together….
I looked at Gwak Han-muk and Mo Hae-in. The two were already discussing how to search together.
They seemed confident that since Je Hyeon-o had regained his senses and accepted me as a teammate, he wouldn’t attack again.
They likely judged that unlike them, whose stamina was depleted, I was suitable for him to protect.
However, there was something the captains didn’t know.
I had mentioned 【Zero】 to Je Hyeon-o.
I’d touched upon what was essentially his reverse scale, yet I couldn’t confess this fact to Mo Hae-in and Gwak Han-muk either.
I was already engaging in conspicuous behavior—mentioning Trial’s strategies and items.
If I displayed even more unusual conduct, the current tacit approval could shatter.
At least, fortunately, I didn’t need to worry about Je Hyeon-o potentially revealing anything about 【Zero】 or the system window to them.
Je Hyeon-o was fundamentally the type who didn’t even speak when necessary—that was his problem.
He wouldn’t bother with the tedious task of informing them that Han Go-yo was an anomalous existence.
‘He’d simply eliminate me the moment he judged me a threat, by his own hand.’
Since he recognized me as a teammate, he’d overlook most things, but if I did something that irritated him beyond a certain point, he’d dispose of me immediately.
The fact that he made no effort to hide his desire to kill me made this abundantly clear.
Even now, traveling together, he might be waiting for an opportunity to strike.
‘I hope Colonel Je doesn’t resort to execution….’
Carrying these anxieties with me, I became a team with Je Hyeon-o.
We set the rendezvous point as the 5th Floor Research Lab.
Unaware of my thoughts, Mo Hae-in and Gwak Han-muk opened the rooftop door and disappeared down the emergency stairs to execute their mission.
Now only Je Hyeon-o and I remained on the rooftop.
I turned to face him. Je Hyeon-o still displayed a wide-eyed emoticon on his goggles.
He seemed like the type who would follow along with whatever I suggested.
“…We need to head to the 2nd Floor.”
Traversing from the rooftop to the 2nd Floor while wading through Dead Zombies would take considerable time.
But with Je Hyeon-o present, there was no reason to walk on two feet.
Before I could even speak, Je Hyeon-o seemed to have reached the same conclusion.
He retrieved leather gloves from his inventory.
As he placed the black gloves over his left metal hand, a brilliant light flashed, and it transformed into the shape of a human hand.
‘So those are the Raven Gloves.’
With the Raven Gloves equipped on one hand, Je Hyeon-o appeared somewhat less menacing.
Thump.
He suddenly seized the back of my neck. Then he bolted across the rooftop and….
Without any warning, he leaped downward.
The sensation of falling was dizzying.
Plummeting rapidly, Je Hyeon-o drove his metal hand precisely into the wall at the 2nd Floor level.
In the same motion, he shattered the window with his foot and hurled me inside.
“Ugh…!”
I barely managed to regain my balance and stand, narrowly avoiding tumbling across the floor amid the shattered glass.
Je Hyeon-o, with one human hand and one metal hand dangling, casually climbed through the window into the Corridor.
Emergency lighting was scattered sparsely throughout the Corridor.
A long shadow stretched beneath Je Hyeon-o’s feet.
“Krraaagh!”
The Dead Zombies, hearing the shattering of glass, rushed forward with eyes gleaming.
He gestured to me with his human hand—the one wearing the leather gloves. It was a signal to stay back out of the way.
The moment I pressed myself flat against the wall, Je Hyeon-o swung his metal hand in a horizontal arc.
A whooshing sound split the air, and five lines carved across the zombies’ bodies.
Metallic clanging followed. The horde of zombies crumbled into pieces.
As I was hurled to the ground, my irreverent thoughts vanished instantly.
“Thank you, Lieutenant Colonel Je.”
His strengths and weaknesses were remarkably clear-cut. His personality left something to be desired, but his abilities were so formidable that he was the kind of superior who’d let you leave early. I suppose that’s one way to put it.
I attended to my superior, who had dispatched the zombies in mere seconds, with genuine delight.
“This way will do.”
Our destination was the Director’s Office.
As we made our way there, I paused briefly at the office.
“Would it be possible to ask you for one small, utterly trivial favor?”
Je Hyeon-o fixed me with a look that said go ahead. I flashed my superior a bright smile and spoke.
“Food farming.”
From the 3rd Floor onward, the facilities were primarily analysis labs and experimental chambers, so provisions were typically concentrated on the 1st and 2nd Floors.
Since the number of researchers had grown from one to four, it made sense to secure provisions for delivery while we were already on the 2nd Floor.
Je Hyeon-o’s goggles lit up.
O K
He could display text too…?
It was something I hadn’t known because Je Hyeon-o rarely spoke in the game.
Wondering silently if he could project longer text, I entered the office alongside Je Hyeon-o.
Unlike the Corridor, the emergency lighting hadn’t activated in the office, leaving it dim, but that posed no real problem.
I knew the locations of all the provisions, and Je Hyeon-o could see objects even in darkness.
“Third desk on the left, chocolate bars in the bottom drawer. And next to that desk, move the potted plant and there’s a bag of jelly.”
I only had to call out coordinates, and Je Hyeon-o would swiftly farm the items and toss them into the backpack.
My only job was to follow him through the darkness with the backpack held open.
‘This is convenient. So convenient.’
When we were alone earlier, I’d felt uneasy, but thanks to his unexpectedly cooperative nature, things were progressing smoothly.
I eagerly took advantage of Je Hyeon-o’s usefulness.
After finishing with the office, we approached the Director’s Office.
Creak, creak….
A faint zombie sound echoed. It seemed to have awakened from the sound of breaking glass, but strangely, it was a muffled noise, as if something were trapped.
‘But there shouldn’t be any trapped zombies on the 2nd Floor…?’
I had no idea what had gone wrong.
Since the sound came from the direction of the Director’s Office, I quickened my pace.
As we drew closer, the zombie sounds mingled with dull thuds of something colliding and the sound of someone weeping.
And when I reached the Director’s Office….
“….”
“Go-yo.”
Je Hyeon-o calls out to me.
His voice is rough and bestial, tinged with amusement.
“Think you can clear this?”
I should have answered immediately to prove my usefulness.
But this time, I couldn’t respond.
Thud, thud, thud….
A zombie continued slamming its head against the reinforced glass door.
With both arms and legs bound, the zombie had a gag stuffed in its mouth.
A researcher’s ID card swayed from the zombie’s neck—the only part of it still free to move as it relentlessly rammed the glass door.
I stared blankly at the zombie, then slowly lowered my gaze.
The ID card with its name and photograph came into sharp focus.
Lee Se-eon
There was no doubt.
He was the researcher who was supposed to develop the vaccine.
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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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