The Espers Who Regretted Losing Me Chapter 130

“Yes, that zombie! It came out of a Gate, and apparently everyone bitten by it became infected. And if you get bitten by an infected person, you become infected too.”

“There are some older guys staying with us who actually saw that monster and the infected people. One of them even showed us a video.”

“During the day, it moves slowly and sluggishly, just like a normal zombie, but apparently it gets more active at night. When the Gate broke out, there happened to be an Esper there, so they locked the zombies inside a convenience store.”

Seeing their disgusted expressions, I made a face too.

Gates like that hadn’t existed for the past several decades. If there had been a Gate where ‘zombies’ appeared, it would have been classified as at least A-rank or S-rank regardless of its difficulty, and we would have received serious warnings about it during training. There was no way I wouldn’t have known.

Espers had strong immune systems, so the virus might not affect them, but if they could become infected too, it would be an absolute disaster. It wasn’t something we could exactly experiment with, either.

That meant either a zombie Gate had appeared for the first time in decades and happened to occur in our country, or it had become a Unified Gate.

Just like ‘The Botanical Garden of the White and Pale Barometz,’ the first recorded Unified Gate. There were plenty of virus dungeons and humanoid monster dungeons, after all.

I could understand why zombies had appeared, but there was one thing I didn’t understand, so I frowned and asked,

“When did this happen?”

“About half a year ago.”

As expected. It made sense that the Director and the others hadn’t known about it.

I nodded and asked another question.

“There were Espers there, so did they just leave the infected people alone? I mean, they didn’t kill them and simply locked them up?”

The reason I asked was related to the personalities of Espers.

Non-Awakened people often criticized the ESP Association over human rights issues. The main complaint was that they didn’t recover bodies from inside Gates.

Though this was beside the point, it was probably also because people who were upset that Espers wouldn’t use their abilities for the sake of Non-Awakened people had stirred things up.

Especially wealthy and powerful Non-Awakened people would have been able to learn about the special abilities of Awakened people through one route or another. I didn’t know much about the ways of the world, but I was smart enough to make that much of a guess.

Anyway, half a year ago wasn’t that long ago. If it had happened during the early days of the Gate Outbreaks, I could understand, but by that point things should already have gotten as bad as they could. So I found it strange that they had simply locked up the people who had become hosts for the virus.

Park Minseok and Nam Woojin blinked blankly, perhaps because they hadn’t understood what I was getting at.

In the end, I turned to Han Yeonwoo. As expected from the quick-witted one, I got the answer I wanted.

“As far as I know, they said they locked the infected people up because there was a way to return them to normal. ……But I’m not completely sure.”

“Return them to normal…… So they’re looking for a healing-type Esper.”

“Crazy. Espers can do things like that……? Park Minseok, you’re amazing.”

“I-I don’t think I can do that…… Me? How could someone like me possibly……?”

“Minseok can’t do it, but that person I mentioned earlier might be able to. The healing-type Esper who supposedly became capable of restoring someone even if their arms and legs had been cut off, as long as they were still alive. They could heal more than just external injuries, too. They could even cure things like colds. But the zombies I know are covered in bite wounds and have rotten bodies from head to toe…….”

“The zombies we saw were like that too.”

“…….”

I wondered if people like that could really be treated safely. I couldn’t be certain since it wasn’t my ability, but at least I had gotten an answer to what I was wondering about.

Of course, it also made me curious about something else. The Esper who had locked the infected people inside the convenience store.

‘They really have a good personality.’

I had thought about this earlier too, but it had only been half a year ago. Most Espers probably weren’t in their right minds yet, and acting impulsively was probably normal for them.

Even so, I was quite surprised that someone had thought about the future and simply kept the infected people locked up.

Of course, there was no need to bring up something like that, so I naturally changed the subject.

“Thanks for telling me. I guess a convenience store really was the only place around there where they could lock people up.”

“Yes. The convenience store closest to the Association must have been packed with them. I heard they locked the infected people in the storage room of the next convenience store because there weren’t as many infected there.”

“Ah, so that’s why the second convenience store wasn’t covered up from the outside…….”

It was a good thing I wasn’t a reckless, impulsive person with a useless amount of curiosity.

Even if I had skipped the first convenience store because it felt suspicious, the second one didn’t look particularly dangerous. I might have even tried to break the chains and go inside.

From the same perspective, it was fortunate that the zombie Gate had appeared recently.

Considering the location of the convenience stores where the infected people had been locked up, the Gate must have appeared near the Association. People were scattered around now, but what would have happened if this had occurred immediately after the Gate Outbreak?

‘……I really was lucky.’

Cold sweat ran down my back as I imagined what could have happened.

For convenience, we were calling them ‘zombies,’ but the fact that people had become infected by a virus from a monster that came out of a Gate meant that this was far beyond anything Non-Awakened people could handle.

No matter how slow they were, getting bitten meant becoming infected, and if there had been a crowd of people, they would have been overwhelmed in an instant.

Besides, the fact that a monster had emerged meant the Gate hadn’t been cleared within the time limit, and it was highly likely that this had happened because no one had entered it.

If that ‘really nice Esper’ hadn’t been there, the infected people would have been roaming the streets and attacking others, and the virus would have continued spreading.

The Association itself might have been safe from the effects since fierce monsters had made their nests all over the place.

But if the zombie virus had already spread everywhere, I would have encountered infected people the moment I came out and been scared enough to feel like my heart had stopped……

‘Of course, I would have run for my life and made sure I was safe.’

Still, I definitely wouldn’t have gone outside.

This wasn’t an exaggerated thought at all.

Even if Espers couldn’t become infected, every Non-Awakened person would turn into a zombie. And even if a healing-type Esper like Lee Shinra really could eliminate the virus, how much could she handle without a Guide?

The other Espers would also have to use their abilities to protect themselves from the infected. How long could they last without Guides?

Thinking this far made me feel relieved, while at the same time making the Director’s concerns hit even harder.

This world had become far too dangerous, and without Espers, things could become an even bigger hell than they already were. That was why Guides had become so incredibly important.

‘It really wouldn’t be strange if Guides were being held captive somewhere…….’

In that sense, I was quite lucky that these three were the people I met right after leaving the Association.

Except for the small problem that the future looked completely hopeless.

When I stopped asking questions so enthusiastically, the room naturally grew quiet, and only repeated sighs could be heard.

I couldn’t let myself become depressed too, so I relaxed my body and spoke casually.

“I said we should get some proper rest, but I ended up bothering you. Sorry.”

“N-No. I wasn’t sleepy anyway.”

“Me neither, Noona.”

“Yeah. Then let’s really go to sleep now. Don’t worry too much. There must be a way for us to get out. You never know, right? Maybe something else will change in the Gate and an exit will suddenly open…….”

“Aaah!”

Just as I closed my eyes and started talking optimistically, a scream suddenly rang out.

My heart dropped. At the same time as I sat up, I grabbed the triangular staff I had left beside me.

But I didn’t need to ask what had happened. Park Minseok, Nam Woojin, and Han Yeonwoo were staring behind me with eyes so wide they looked like they might pop out, and I could see a red glow.

“T-There’s a fire. In the village……!”

The distance wasn’t very far, so I could see it clearly.

Flames were shooting up from the temple.