Kim Daram’s face had grown even thinner since the last time we met. Even considering that Cheon Young-jae was newlywed, his face was haggard and his complexion unhealthy. His health had declined over those few months. I figured most of that deterioration was from stress. And after talking to him a bit, it turned out I was right, as expected.

“Ever since those guys who look like that man started prowling around, I can hardly go outside.”

“That internet friend of yours—things are crazy with him lately. Gunfire almost every day. Once, they even came right up to our territory. Said some slave had escaped and shot a man dead right in front of us. Couldn’t even be bothered to bury the body. Just dumped it by the stream. We ended up burying him, didn’t we?” 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

The Extinction Sect and Dies Irae. The dangers I’d predicted were amplifying the unease among Kim Daram’s group. But the biggest reason was the bunker itself.

“...That bunker. The inside’s fine, ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) but it feels flimsy. The groundwater and everything. When gunfire breaks out outside, we can’t even tell what’s going on. They say they built a watchtower, but now outsiders come snooping around once in a while, and that’s annoying as hell.”

“The generator’s weak too. Nothing like the one in your bunker. Yours is industrial grade, right? This one doesn’t have the juice. When the power’s lacking, everything’s lacking. So we rely on solar, but every time a drone shows up, we tremble with anxiety.”

Friends who once nitpicked that my bunker looked ugly, that it ruined the scenery—now they finally understood how glorious my bunker really was. For a founding doomsdayist like me, that was moving. But I wasn’t free enough today to savor the pride. Today, we had to go into the ruins ahead of us.

The City of Graves—the zombies’ domain—that was where we needed to go. Because Sejong itself was backing the operation, the support was lavish enough to remind me of the old days with China. Dozens of soldiers, heavy equipment, advanced electronics—and even two Awakened were assigned to us. One was Squad Leader Nam Ban-jang, now like a friend. The other was a female Awakened named Son Hye-eun.

Surprisingly, Son Hye-eun wasn’t one of the homegrown Awakened common in Sejong, but someone who had actually gone through the government’s official Awakened program.

“I was in Yangsan. I handled Rift duty there.”

Sejong had grown so much that she’d chosen it over New Seoul without regret. Clearly, her personal circumstances had played a big part.

“I never liked Kang Han-min’s faction much. Looking at them reminded me of fanatics. But since all the powerful people were in his camp, folks like me got pushed out to the provinces. Some even got sent abroad. I went to Southeast Asia several times.”

Politics existed in the world of the Awakened too. Even Jeju hadn’t called in people who’d fallen out of Kang Han-min’s favor. But of course, the main reason was Son Hye-eun herself.

“...Honestly, don’t you think Kang Han-min is strange?”

She said she’d once gotten an official warning just for talking about Kang Han-min behind his back when he was at the top.

“I heard you were in the same cohort. You must know him well, right? The way he acts—you see him with a face caked in makeup, all the lights on him, but he won’t step forward himself. Just presses his lips shut and pushes others out front. Kim Chan-du, Yoon Hyang-ja, those types.”

“Who are they? Sounds familiar.”

“Committee members of Gukwiwon. All dead now. Not on the list of people who came over from Jeju. Guess incompetents end up like that.”

Didn’t seem like a high-quality person. Kim Daram was the first to sniff her out and whispered to me.

“Doesn’t she seem a little off?”

For Kim Daram, maybe it felt like looking in the mirror. I silently nodded.

This operation wasn’t really her business anyway—she had already brought all her family to Sejong with the armored convoys. Cheon Young-jae had left his girlfriend Yoo Jung-min back in Foxgames’ bunker, but only because Yoo Jung-min was responsible enough to handle it.

“Ha, I figure ditching that server and coming here would be more economical.”

Still, Yoo Jung-min was managing the vast data Foxgames left behind with meticulous care. She might lack ability, but she was decent at heart. I’d judged her well. Of course, she was lacking. Seriously lacking.

“Squad Leader Nam.”

Anyway, a job had been given. And if I took it, I had to do it right—that was only natural.

In fact, before even coming to Sejong, I’d suspected this wasn’t just an assassination mission. The moment we entered the City of Graves, my suspicion hardened into certainty. There were no zombies in sight. IAmJesus was alive, holding on to his sanity. Just two days ago, he and I had talked cheerfully about the duties of a king. For him to re-enter this city of corpses meant the problem wasn’t merely assassination. Assassination was just one part of it.

“Here, you don’t need to hide anything, right? Tell me straight—what exactly is going on in Sejong about the Second?”

I already knew Nam Ban-jang was the underling of a particular faction at Sejong’s core. Likely one of the warlord groups. Currently, Sejong was divided into three big factions: the founding group that built the city alongside King, the elite bureaucrats from the government, and the external warlords. The growth of the city had made such divisions inevitable. But the real trouble came from the elite group.

They didn’t understand why the city needed a king. Dissatisfied with their positions, they colluded with some of the founding group to form a so-called democratic government—but their real aim was to put themselves in the ruling class. The warlords stayed officially neutral, but, as always, some of their cliques sided with the elites, others with the founders.

Which side Nam Ban-jang’s clique was on—I hadn’t figured out. Even IAmJesus didn’t seem to know. He might have received King’s lessons, but when it came to politics, IAmJesus was still clean. He’d probably been fed up with it for a long time. Maybe this staged assassination attempt had finally snapped the last thread.

Not that I thought this mission would be easy. Regardless of whether the assassins were with Kang Han-min’s side or not, a powerful group of Awakened and fighters had entered the City of Graves. A Sejong soldier, who wouldn’t give his name, called them “specialized for fighting people.”

Contradictory words, but not absurd. When Awakened first appeared, governments had carefully considered using them as military weapons. I already knew there were Awakened who honed their powers for hunting humans rather than monsters. The fanatics I’d fought here when rescuing IAmJesus had been just that—trained for human combat. Even Jeju must have retrained those too fearful of monsters into anti-personnel specialists.

But still. Even so, could they really have handled IAmJesus in peak condition? The relaxed attitude of Nam Ban-jang and the Sejong soldiers said everything. No urgency, no unease. The city itself was too quiet. Above all, not a single zombie resident was wandering outside. Perfectly under control.

IAmJesus was immensely powerful. If he had been pushed around by that Chinese fanatic, it was because of illness, not because his ability was lacking. Before we left, I’d asked Nam Ban-jang whether IAmJesus wasn’t coming out—or couldn’t come out—because I knew just how strong he really was. He was an Over Level 10 Awakened. Even without much field experience, that meant power on par with a Nemesis-type. He might once have been a weak boy, but the IAmJesus now was a different man. The assassins probably hadn’t been his match at all.

We advanced slowly through the silent ruins.

Woooooo—

Woooooo—

The ominous chorus of zombies weighed on us even in broad daylight, but the hum of jeeps behind us offered some comfort. We put people in the lead in case of ambush. A jeep might guarantee survival against zombies, but the instant an anti-tank weapon hit, it would become a coffin.

Even with two Awakened, plenty of anti-tank guns fired without much noise, and anti-tank drones could slip in from unexpected angles. A little inconvenience was worth avoiding the risk of losing everyone in one strike.

Kim Daram and Cheon Young-jae, both trained hunters, understood without complaint. But Nam Ban-jang, Son Hye-eun, and the other soldiers grumbled at us having to advance on foot. But here, I was the leader. Yes, I was mild in personal life, but once a mission began, I was still the Professor. I listened well, communicated openly—but once operations started, I was absolute.

Complaints about why we left the vehicles behind in zombie territory were ignored. When necessary, I even used hand signals to shut them up.

“...”

I stopped walking. Waited for the footsteps behind me to halt, then asked without turning back:

“You said there hasn’t been gunfire for twenty-four hours, right?”

Nam Ban-jang answered.

“Yes, that’s correct.”

I knew he was glancing nervously—not at me, but at Son Hye-eun. For some reason, she seemed to outrank him here. But their hierarchy didn’t matter.

What mattered was that the situation was far duller than expected. The assassins were probably all dead. Likely the very day they killed the Sejong guards at the city’s edge and slipped inside. The corpse ahead of us—its neck broken backward—said it all.

The assassins had been annihilated. Yet IAmJesus still hadn’t come out. That meant he had reasons of his own, separate from the assassins. Plenty of time had passed since the incident. Instead of resolving it himself, he’d called for me—meaning this was something only I could handle. With all the talent Sejong had gathered, there was no way it was about brute force. It had to be about people.

IAmJesus had entered the City of Graves by his own will.

“You can all go back now.”

The zombies hiding in neat order within the ruins said it all. This city was completely under IAmJesus’s control. Bringing soldiers and weapons inside meant nothing.

“You sure about this?”

“Senior... are you serious?”

I nodded, gesturing with my hand. Return.

Then I walked alone deeper into the ruins. When the hum of engines faded at the edge of hearing, I found the second body.

“Uhhhhh...”

Not a corpse—already a zombie. Fresh blood still gleamed wetly on the uniform, a red stain spreading across it. A shard of rebar jutted from its belly. I ignored it and walked on.

In the dimness, chilling eyes glared at me. Yeah. That must be IAmJesus’s palace. I lowered my gun and called toward the entrance.

“IAmJesus!”

I let him know I was here.

“It’s Skelton. Can I come in?”

“Yeah. Come in.”

The reply was unexpectedly strong, clear—nothing timid about it. A far cry from the boyish voice he once had. But my doubts only deepened. What had driven him back into these ruins? A man who had suffered every tragedy, who had received a king’s education.

My question was answered the moment I stepped into the ruined palace.

Children. Dead children, standing as living corpses, staring at IAmJesus.

The sight of children’s bodies no longer stirred us—it was bitter, but we’d seen too much death. A child’s death had become just another human death. But this scene was different.

“...”

The children’s bodies were grotesquely twisted. Each child had mutated limbs, more insect-like than human. Some only their arms, some only their legs, some both. The twisted parts reminded me of Woo Min-hee’s prosthetics, but these were different. The new arms and legs were ashen gray.

As we looked at the undead children, the King of Sejong bowed his head and spoke.

“I thought my father was the worst father alive.”

He raised his hand slowly.

Thud!

A shockwave. Unlike before, it swept past me in a muted, restrained way, almost considerate. Then the limp children suddenly snapped their heads up and screamed.

“Daddy said kill him.”

“Daddy told us to kill.”

“Daddy said if we kill this man, we’ll see Mommy.”

“Daddy made us do it...”

“Daddy... where are you?”

Children with nearly identical faces, asking for their father.

IAmJesus waved his hand, and they all fell silent, their eyes dulling again.

In the deathlike silence, he spoke.

“...There’s worse out there.”

I looked at their faces. Not the same individuals, but their resemblance was uncanny. Enough to show they shared genetic identity.

Yes. The twisted children who had attacked IAmJesus were the offspring of Kang Han-min, raised in the same facility as Mark Two.