Ubermensch – Chapter 174

Chapter 174

It took Albert a while to calm down.

Three years were dissolved in his sobbing tears. Three years of loneliness. Three years of fear. Three years of despair.

Facing the salvation that finally arrived, Albert let it all go.

And Albert regained his composure.

It was mental strength that even Mason would admire.

“Thank you for your time, my God.”

“I can give you more than that if it eases your suffering.”

“Thank you for your generosity. But what I desire is only one thing, salvation.”

Albert said quietly.

“Please send me somewhere safe. Somewhere I don’t have to be afraid. I don’t want anything more.”

“So it shall be.”

Mason said benevolently.

“Along with a million survivors in this city.”

At that moment, Albert looked puzzled.

“There are a million people living in this city?”

“Yes. I feel it. A million humans.”

“Oztalon, are you saying there are a million people in this city?”

Albert had been living alone in this city. Because everyone else had become zombies.

“Could it be that you consider zombies to be alive?”

“Zombies?”

Mason looked puzzled.

“I only sense the lives of humans…”

“See for yourself, my god. This city has become a haven for wild animals and zombies.”

“Will you guide me?”

“…”

Albert wore an anxious expression. Going outside was a terrifying prospect.

Mason spoke in a gentle tone.

“I promise you. As long as I am by your side, nothing on this earth will harm you.”

Albert wore a sheepish expression. To feel uneasy with the Guardian Deity Oztalon by his side… It was distrust towards Oztalon, and distrust in a god was both rude and blasphemous.

“Yes, my Lord.”

Albert picked up his bow.

“I happened to spot a zombie by the riverside. It shouldn’t have gone far, so we should be able to find it easily.”

Mason took Albert’s hand.

In the next instant, Mason and Albert were standing by the riverside.

“…!”

Unlike the astonished Albert, Mason was shocked for a different reason.

“This city… is in ruins.”

“Didn’t you see it?”

“I only heard your call. This is my first time seeing this place.”

Albert walked along, searching for the zombie. Walking with him, Mason looked around the city.

Abandoned cars filled the streets, and the eerie wind whistling through the broken windows of buildings sounded like the wails of ghosts.

Mason recalled his time as a human, or more precisely, as a player.

Seoul had been like this back then, too.

After walking for a while, Albert stopped.

“There it is.”

Where he pointed, a single zombie was shambling along.

Albert looked at Mason, but Mason only wore a puzzled expression.

“Isn’t that just an ordinary East Asian man?”

His eyes were sunken, and his skin was rotting. He was emaciated, and his wounds were festering. Even if he wasn’t a zombie, his horrifying state was enough to make anyone scared and run away.

“He’s a zombie.”

Mason looked puzzled.

“To my eyes, he looks like an ordinary person.”

Albert wore a confused expression.

‘Are the eyes of a god right, or are mine?’

Just then, the zombie noticed Albert and started shambling towards him. As the terrified Albert tried to shoot an arrow, Mason reached out and stopped him.

“…”

Albert lowered his bow and stepped back.

Mason stood in front of the zombie.

The zombie then bit Mason’s arm.

Clack!

Of course, its teeth couldn’t penetrate the divine energy surrounding Mason’s body and reach his flesh.

Mason was shocked.

“Albert. Do you still see him as a zombie?”

“Yes.”

“Then I must be mistaken.”

Mason reached out and lifted the zombie into the air.

The zombie continued to gnash its teeth as if trying to bite Mason.

“What in the world is going on?”

Mason was a god, a high-ranking one with numerous followers across multiple dimensions. He should be able to see through illusions, yet he was seeing an illusion that ordinary people weren’t fooled by?

“Give me a moment, Albert.”

“Yes.”

Mason struck the air.

Crash!

The boundary between dimensions shattered. It was a dimensional gate leading to his dimension, the Solar System.

“Randy.”

“Yes.”

Randy, summoned, crossed dimensions.

“What do you see over there?”

“A zombie.”

“…”

Mason swallowed a groan.

“Alright. Go back.”

Randy was an Archmage, but he was human. Just like Albert.

Then there was only one conclusion.

‘An illusion meant to deceive only gods?’

How?

No. Why?

No. Who?

Mason was lost in confusion.

He approached Albert.

“Albert.”

“Yes.”

“Can I borrow your sight for a moment?”

Albert wore a puzzled expression, not understanding what he meant.

But he nodded.

“Please do.”

Mason placed his hand on Albert’s face, precisely on his eyelids.

Then, Mason saw the world not through the eyes of a god, but through the eyes of a human.

It was literally a copy and paste of Albert’s vision.

“Now I see the zombie too.”

Mason slowly examined the zombie.

However, there was a limit to what he could discern with human eyes instead of his divine sight.

“…I don’t understand.”

Mason clicked his tongue.

“By borrowing human sight, my information gathering ability has drastically decreased.”

Crash!

He shattered space with a swing of his fist.

Mason teleported the zombie to Nymphassil.

He intended to analyze it in the laboratory.

“While we wait for the results, it would be helpful if you could tell me what you know.”

“Where should I start?”

“Tell me whatever you feel comfortable with.”

“From the beginning of the zombie outbreak?”

“Yes.”

Albert closed his eyes slowly.

“When it all began, I was writing a book…”

>>>

When Albert realized the gravity of the situation, he was in his study writing a book. It was the second book of his survival guide, the third chapter of the survival guide for when a zombie outbreak occurs.

While the emergency broadcast delivered breaking news about the ‘biological disaster’, Albert packed his survival kit backpack and weapons, which he always kept ready. It was a heavy kukri and a pistol.

If you want to avoid using weapons, you must have more weapons.

After all preparations were complete, Albert entered the shelter he had prepared in advance in his basement.

It was a place well-stocked with food and water for a year, as well as various necessities.

“I remember you weren’t in the basement.”

“Yes. Because I forgot one thing.”

“What was it?”

“People.”

Albert lived in his underground shelter and waited for half a year. As he had expected, the situation worsened, the government collapsed, the broadcasting stations disappeared, and the radio went dead.

Albert occasionally went outside to replenish his supplies. However, at some point, he began to feel people’s eyes on him.

“Who was it?”

“They were looters.”

People would do anything to survive, and that ‘anything’ included looting and murder. By the time Albert noticed the people’s gaze, it was too late.

The people who had been watching the healthy and well-maintained Albert were closing in.

Eventually, the people who had figured out the location of his house surrounded it, and Albert had to hide from them.

The people, unable to hold back any longer, became looters, and Albert had to fight them with only an iron door between them.

In the end, he fired his gun, and the zombies, hearing the gunshot, flocked to the scene.

The looters were all torn to shreds, but Albert realized he couldn’t keep this hideout.

Countless zombies were flocking to the sound of gunshots and fighting.

Albert grabbed a backpack and escaped before he was completely trapped, and set out to find a new hideout.

“So, did you find a new hideout?”

“No. What I found was… a community.”

The place Albert moved to was a community. Those who had occupied the old military base had sufficient weapons and ample supplies.

The military was one of the places with the most abundant supplies in a crisis.

Military supplies usually included preserved food, as well as water filters and purification tablets.

However, the military was also one of the most dangerous places in a crisis.

This was because it was a group of well-armed and trained combatants with a firm chain of command.

Albert was a cautious man, and he used a telescope from his new hideout to observe the situation in the community. To see if it was a place he could join.

“And that was a wise choice.”

“Why?”

“Because they were using civilians as slaves, and… as medicine.”

“Medicine?”

“Yes.”

The soldiers were using the civilians as slaves. It was only natural. A combination of young, strong, well-armed people and relatively weak, unarmed people. In a group with a clear distinction between strength and weakness, it was clear what would happen if law, morality, and tolerance were excluded.

The soldiers used the civilians as slaves to farm.

And sometimes they even ate them.

“Eat them? What do you mean?”

“It’s a characteristic of these zombies. Before they fully turn into zombies, while they’re still in the process of zombification… they can delay the process by consuming human flesh.”

“…”

Seeing the speechless god, the survivor who had seen hell smiled bitterly.

“That’s why I stayed as far away from them as possible. The end seemed obvious.”

The soldiers would eventually eat all the civilians. And if there were no civilians left, they would eat each other.

Unless they secured new civilians.

And in this world, it wasn’t easy to find new people.

“The last time I checked… only zombies were left at the military base.”

“So many have suffered such horrible things.”

“That’s why I decided to live alone. And…”

Albert smiled bitterly.

“…Well, I ended up here.”

“I don’t know how to comfort you for the pain you’ve gone through.”

“Just… give me back a normal life. There’s nothing happier than that, so I can’t imagine anything more.”

“So it shall be.”

At that moment, a familiar voice reached Mason’s ears.

It was Deroa’s prayer.

“How did it go? Are the zombies alive?”

“That’s good. Are you making a cure?”

Deroa hesitated for a moment. It was an uncharacteristic attitude for her.