Possessed a Healing Game, but It’s a Zombie Apocalypse - Chapter 12
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 12
Of course, every time she encountered zombies, the memories of that day would torment Nana. But no matter how scary a horror movie is, you become numb to it after watching it repeatedly.
Moreover, these zombies only follow Nana’s words from the moment they step onto her land.
Their appearance is still hideous enough to make your heart drop if you encounter them at night, but they don’t eat, they don’t sleep, and they work silently all day long.
Could there be a more perfect worker than this?
Nana’s instincts, tainted by modern capitalism, reacted.
Trauma, fear—everything can be set aside in the face of efficiency.
It was the moment when beings that were once like nightmares became farm slaves boasting the highest productivity.
“So within your land, they can’t attack humans and absolutely follow your words?”
“That’s right. Should I show you again? You two there, go far away and come back!”
But the zombies remained in place, still just flailing their arms and legs while repeatedly jumping.
“Ah, was that too abstract?”
Nana cleared her throat and spoke again.
“Then go pick up anything from behind the blacksmith, about thirty meters away!”
Only then did the zombies stop moving and slowly walk outside.
In the brief silence, Ishanka spoke again.
“Honestly, I still don’t completely understand this situation.”
His eyes were deep and serious.
“But there’s something I really want to ask you.”
Nana tensed up slightly.
Had what was bound to come finally arrived?
“I suspected you were a dark mage from the beginning.”
He confessed his true feelings calmly.
“In this land of despair, I thought it must be magic that only your farm remains alive. But…”
Ishanka slowly shook his head.
“I don’t sense any magical power from you. Far from dark magic, you have an aura even cleaner than an ordinary human.”
At his words, Nana suppressed a chuckle.
‘Should I thank you for the compliment?’
“So I’ll ask.”
Ishanka and Nana’s gazes met in the air.
“What exactly are you?”
‘Who am I? I’m a game transmigrator who thought I’d live with a happy ending, but I’m a pissed-off game player whose world collapsed, and also your employer.’
If she said that here, Ishanka would probably think ‘My employer is talking nonsense, so she must be a dark mage,’ or ‘She’s saying strange things, so my employer really was a dark mage,’ and draw the sword at his waist.
Aren’t both the same thing? Either way, she didn’t want to die by the sword.
‘Anyway, what was bound to come has come. I wondered why he hadn’t asked this question until now.’
Just as Ishanka had observed Nana, Nana had also observed him.
At first, it was more surveillance than observation.
When she first employed him as a worker, Ishanka was to Nana an anger management disorder patient with a sword who might go crazy and rampage at any moment.
In case he suddenly drew his sword while working in the fields, she pretended to focus on farm work while secretly watching Ishanka to subdue him with command skills if necessary.
But.
‘This guy is more docile than I thought?’
He didn’t carelessly swing around even a wooden stick, let alone a sword.
Then why had he acted so wildly when they first met? Nana recalled a phrase he had uttered.
‘These must be crops used for evil magic.’
That’s right. Ishanka had mistaken Nana for a dark mage.
This world is currently positioned between the decline of magic and the rise of mechanical engineering.
Old-fashioned telephones that you’d only see in museums had just been invented, and trains ran along rails spewing thick smoke, carrying goods to the ends of the earth.
Although it took longer than teleportation magic circles, there were no side effects, you could carry many loads at once, and the cost was much cheaper.
In terms of cost and efficiency alone, mechanical engineering was far more practical than magic.
Moreover, with the creation of factories, it became possible to mass-produce items of uniform quality, and thanks to that, jobs increased rapidly.
The 30,000 solbrin you could earn in a year by farming could be earned in just 3 months at a factory.
To put it in real-world terms, you could earn twice as much as a decent large company production worker. People cheered and flocked to cities and factories. Hooray!
But the real reason magic was pushed out was different.
It wasn’t because of money or efficiency, but because of perception.
Just 10 years ago, conquest wars were frequent throughout the continent, and kingdoms actively employed dark mages at that time.
Dark magic, which was much cheaper than official Magic Tower mages and could curse, manipulate, and efficiently kill people, was the most practical weapon on the battlefield.
But the problem came after the wars ended.
Nothing grew on battlefields where dark magic ran rampant, and even passing civilians died from curses.
Moreover, some dark mages experimented with magic in civilian areas or used their power to cause trouble.
That damage fell entirely on the people.
Eventually, the perception spread among people that magic was dangerous, a seed of disaster.
Official mages felt wronged.
“We are not dark mages!”
“Magic and dark magic are different!”
They cried out several times, but the people’s reaction was cold.
“Isn’t it all the same magic? It’s all the same thing.”
Eventually, magic was lumped together with dark magic and branded as dangerous, gradually disappearing from people’s daily lives.
…This is the setting within this game. No wonder there was notably no magic content when playing the game—who knew there were such deep circumstances behind it.
Anyway, if that intense reaction when they first met was due to misunderstanding her as a dark mage, everything fit perfectly.
Then there was only one thing Nana could answer.
“Yes. It may be hard to believe, but I can communicate with God.”
Nana spoke very seriously. There wasn’t even 1g of shame in her pale sky-blue eyes.
Of course, it wasn’t a lie.
If the game system is this world’s god, then I, who can see System Messages, am practically someone who hears God’s words.
…She decided to believe that. She had to believe it. No, she had to say that for now so she could later pass off words like skills and experience points as divine revelations.
‘Good. Let me try a proper scam once. Eyes serious. Voice plain. Head slightly tilted…’
She looked at him with half nervousness, half shamelessness, but the reaction that came back was far too calm.
“Ah, so that’s why you sometimes wave your hands in the air.”
“…What?”
Nana blinked with a confused face.
“You make those gestures when communicating with God. I thought it was some special ritual.”
Ah, that.
The hand gestures she unconsciously made when scrolling through message windows.
“Yes, that’s right. God’s words come down in written form, so sometimes I need to touch and feel them directly.”
The lies flowed smoothly.
No, it’s half truth and half exaggeration, so it’s not completely false.
“I see. It wouldn’t be strange for someone who follows divine revelations to have the power to make land fertile.”
“Yes, that’s right… What?”
Ishanka had a completely convinced expression.
Nana shouted inwardly without being able to voice the additional words she wanted to add.
‘Hey, you really believe that? With just that much? Amazing. You should really be grateful your opponent is me. If I were into multi-level marketing, you’d have lost your fortune long ago.’
She was grateful he believed her. Really. But on the other hand, she was also worried.
Was he naive, or was he too deep? Or maybe both.
Most importantly, Ishanka hadn’t failed to see through the lie.
His face now contained not simple acceptance, but the resolve of someone who had chosen to believe.
That made Nana feel even more complicated.
But Ishanka himself was actually accepting this through much more rational judgment than Nana.
It wasn’t because he was a naive pushover who only appeared cold on the surface, as Nana suspected.
When he first met Nana, the mysterious text panel that appeared above her head was something he’d never seen before, and naturally he judged it to be magic.
Moreover, in these times, magic was nine times out of ten dark magic.
But looking back now, he hadn’t felt any trace of magical power from that text panel.
If it had been real magic, he should have detected magical power, even faintly, from that distance.
But the fact that he felt nothing meant that, as she said, it really was divine revelation.
Ishanka was someone who had experienced the divine closer than anyone else.
Though it was in dreams rather than reality, Aibanu, the god of war, often spoke to him.
He knew how the voice of a god resonated, with what weight divine oracles approached.
That’s why Nana’s words didn’t sound like complete nonsense and lies.
The divine voice she spoke of might not have been empty words after all.
The problem was that Nana, who knew nothing of Ishanka’s inner circumstances, misunderstood him as a pushover who would eagerly buy even well water if it were called the water of life.
“Then what kind of god is the deity you believe in?”
“The stupid god… no, the God of Agriculture! The god of farming!”
Though it was a stupid God of Agriculture who gave him no combat abilities whatsoever and only dumped a bunch of farming skills on him.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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