I Reincarnated Into a Healing Game… and It’s a Zombie Apocalypse?! - Chapter 69
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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 69
The moment the King approached to embrace Sam, Sam instinctively pushed the King away.
“What is all this, Abamama! What is going on? Why would the Queen Mother do such things…!”
“Enough.”
It was a low, firm voice.
“What kind of reckless behavior is this in front of everyone watching?”
The King’s gaze turned coldly stern.
The tension filling the gardens grew even thicker.
Sam gritted his teeth and remained silent.
The King looked at Sam like that, then spoke in a much softer voice.
“There’s no need to be so agitated, Samuel. Everything was done for the sake of the country.”
Though the King’s tone was soothingly gentle, Sam’s eyes did not easily calm down.
Sam couldn’t hold back and shouted again.
“For the sake of the country? Exploiting the people and maintaining this – is that what Abamama calls serving the country?”
A breathless tension once again filled the gardens.
The King quietly observed Sam for a moment, then shifted his gaze to Nana and Ishanka standing behind him.
“I sent you to study abroad to see the world and gain a broader perspective…”
The King spoke slowly.
“But now I see you’ve returned tainted by bad companions.”
With those words, the King gestured.
In an instant, the royal guards moved to roughly seize Nana and Ishanka.
“Arrest them.”
The King commanded firmly.
“Stop this, Abamama!”
Sam stepped forward trying to intervene.
But the royal guards were already attempting to restrain Nana and Ishanka.
Ishanka narrowed his eyes.
The moment one guard reached out to grab Nana, Ishanka moved.
Thwack!
The first soldier’s wrist snapped and twisted.
Before he could even scream, his body crumpled to the ground.
Ishanka lightly dodged two more guards rushing from the side.
He lowered his body, drove in to strike the abdomen, then moved behind to break a shoulder.
Thud, thud!
With heavy sounds, the soldiers went flying.
It was clean movement without even a breath mixed in.
The nobles and servants belatedly began to stir.
As Nana looked at Ishanka with surprised eyes, Ishanka caught his breath briefly then said quietly.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Ishanka swept Nana up in his arms and without a moment’s hesitation turned around, lightly kicked off the ground, and ran.
Behind them, the captain of the guards shouted.
“Catch them! Don’t let those bastards escape!”
But Ishanka’s speed was fast enough to mock the guards’ pursuit.
Ishanka turned toward the Central Palace and ran without rest.
“Is it okay to go in there? Wouldn’t it be better to go outside?”
Nana asked urgently from within his arms.
“There’s a secret passage in the Central Palace basement. I’ll buy time. You go through there.”
Ishanka answered briefly then smiled bitterly.
“…Originally, this was a route I discovered to infiltrate this place. I never thought I’d use it like this.”
Finding the stairs leading to the basement, Ishanka carefully set Nana down on the ground.
“There’s no one there right now. Hurry and go.”
But Nana gripped his wrist tightly.
“No. I don’t want to run away leaving you behind.”
“There’s no time for this. I’ll follow soon…”
“Don’t lie! You’re doing this prepared to get caught!”
Nana gritted her teeth and glared at him.
A brief silence flowed.
Even the air grew heavy.
“No matter how strong you are, you can’t face dozens of people alone. No matter how fast and strong you are, you can’t block them all when they come flooding in.”
“…”
“And you’re someone precious to me. How could I run away alone leaving you behind? Let’s go together. If we get caught, let’s get caught together.”
Nana looked straight at Ishanka.
Meeting that gaze, Ishanka’s eyes slowly softened.
A moment of hesitation, and then.
“Yes. Let’s escape together.”
Those words contained hundreds of hesitations and a single moment of resolve.
* * *
Not long after Nana and Ishanka disappeared, the King organized a search party.
“Surround everything. Do not allow those bastards to escape under any circumstances.”
When the King’s order fell, soldiers instantly filled every corner of the Central Palace.
Corridors, gardens, stairs, terraces.
Every gap was sealed off.
In the midst of this, Sam was confined to his room by the King’s order.
It was under the pretext of house arrest, but in reality he was locked up unable to take even a step outside.
At the sound of soldiers’ footsteps coming through the closed door, Sam clenched his fists in frustration.
“…Damn it!”
Meanwhile, Nana and Ishanka were still somewhere inside the Central Palace.
Though the search party combed through every corner, the two moved while cleverly evading the soldiers’ eyes.
Hiding around corridor corners, quickly slipping through servants’ passages, hiding in empty rooms holding their breath.
Sometimes soldiers passed right in front of them, but Ishanka remained calm and Nana carefully followed his movements.
“Just a little more, let’s go that way.”
Just as Ishanka was about to move, Nana tugged at his sleeve.
“Wait. There’s someone hiding over there.”
Ishanka glanced briefly at Nana then nodded. The two changed direction and carefully slipped into the opposite corridor.
Nana’s ability to detect the person’s presence was due to a trick using the skill ‘Eagle Eye.’
When Eagle Eye was activated, even hidden people’s status windows would faintly show through.
Even if they were hiding tightly in a corner, she could determine their location from a single window poking out.
Thanks to this, Nana could avoid danger in advance or signal Ishanka to quietly subdue them.
Thus the two continued their hide-and-seek-like time of carefully sneaking around inside the Central Palace.
“Someone is coming this way.”
Before he even finished speaking, Ishanka pulled Nana’s hand and hid behind thick curtains. Shortly after, a servant passed in front of them.
Step, step.
Nana kept her guard up and watched the servant’s retreating figure through the gap in the curtains. But the servant’s status window was strange.
【Name: ▣▣*&$■</p】
Position: ■■■
Status: @#&%^…>
‘What is that? Why is all the text corrupted?’
Ding.
【Quest has been updated.】
【Special Quest: Error’s %#$</p】
There is a source of error @#&%^ in this Central Palace. Please verify it.
Success Reward: New job-related skill / expansion, partial access to hidden story
Failure Penalty: Overall difficulty increase, accelerated zombie entity mutation.
※Leaving the Central Palace will be considered an immediate failure.>
…So you’re saying if I leave here, the world will become even more hellish.
Bald Uncle operator. When I meet you, I won’t let you off with just grabbing your collar.
While Nana was grumbling internally.
“A strange and ominous presence is approaching this way. It’s too far to identify what it is, but it won’t be beneficial for us.”
He immediately grabbed Nana’s hand and led her to a nearby room. Fortunately, it was empty.
“Let’s hide here just until that thing passes by.”
“It’s fortunate this place is empty, but what were you going to do if someone was here?”
“Quickly knock them unconscious.”
“Isha, you’re unexpectedly aggressive?”
“….”
Before their brief banter could even end, footsteps began approaching from the corridor.
The two quickly squeezed themselves into the space behind the closet.
Thud, thud, thud-
The gradually approaching footsteps stopped in front of the room. Her heart felt like it would burst.
Creak-
As the door opened.
“Hmm hmm hmm, hmm hmm.”
Someone entered the room while humming a tune.
With each approaching footstep, Nana shrank her body further.
She covered her own mouth, afraid she might let out even a groan.
Rustle.
The person rummaging through the room took something from somewhere on a shelf.
“Ah, found it.”
A pleased voice.
He turned his footsteps lightly while holding the object in his hand.
Creak, click.
With the sound of the door closing, the room instantly became quiet.
Just as Nana was about to breathe a sigh of relief.
Whoosh.
Ishanka, who had been beside her, shot out like lightning.
Crash!
“Isha, why so suddenly…!”
When the flustered Nana hurriedly pulled herself out of the closet and came outside, her mouth fell shut at the scene unfolding before her eyes.
‘…What is that person?’
“He’s been hovering around the closet where we were hiding since earlier. He even pretended to leave to make us let our guard down.”
The man pinned to the floor by Ishanka didn’t resist and just stayed still.
Just when she thought he might have fainted.
“Keh, kekekek.”
The man suddenly started laughing.
“I thought I’d take a look since something interesting happened during the banquet… Haha, I never thought I’d see something like this.”
The man lying face down on the floor twisted his neck with a bizarre crack as he looked up at Ishanka.
“Hahaha! I knew it, I was right. Hahahaha!”
The man laughed madly. His mouth corners were torn so wide they seemed to reach his ears, making his entire face look twisted.
Nana hugged her arms as a nauseating disgust twisted her insides. It felt like watching something twisted and distorted mimicking a human.
Ishanka grabbed the man by the collar and roughly shoved him against the wall.
Bang! With the sound of the wall reverberating, the man’s feet lifted off the ground.
“This aura… You, are you a dark mage.”
Ishanka’s voice was ice-cold, but beneath it boiled uncontrollable rage.
Long ago, that disgusting darkness that had devoured his parents and tribe.
That nightmare had materialized and appeared before his eyes.
“Keha, cough! Hahaha! So what if I am?”
Even as the man’s face turned red from being choked, he giggled as if he had been waiting for this moment.
He placed his hand on top of Ishanka’s and smiled with a fishy grin.
“What a pathetic sight. You want to tear me apart and kill me right now, so why hesitate? Are you afraid of me? Or.”
The man’s murky eyes slid past Ishanka’s shoulder to Nana.
“Are you afraid I might break something precious to you again? Like your parents?”
Snap. It sounded like Ishanka’s reason had snapped.
Merciless force filled his grip and the man’s neck bones screamed. Ishanka’s eyes flipped blood-red with killing intent.
“I’ll make you regret it in agony.”
At the moment when death was right before him.
The man didn’t even resist. No, rather, he was laughing while pushing his neck deeper into Ishanka’s hand. That’s when it happened.
“Isha, no! Stop!”
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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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