Jae-Hyun stood in front of the five corpses in a trance.
He had noticed something odd due to his connection with the system.
The system was supposedly bound to his soul, so he could feel it in a spiritual sense.
And for a moment, he felt the system change.
This change wasn't something he could sense accurately, but more of an increase in the power of the system.
It suddenly felt like a massive presence had descended at that moment.
And it clearly was directed at the five kids.
In the physical aspect of reality, he saw a huge hole form in their chest, like someone blasted a heat wave to completely incinerate a circular hole where their heart was.
But you couldn't see the heat blast.
Then he felt that sense of oppression ascending back to an invisible realm, only to feel a chill on his shoulder.
Somehow the system proceeded to crash after feeling that chill.
Jae-Hyun felt a bit unreal.
He had his belief about the apocalypse shattered since the moment he stepped into this base.
First of all, there were human beings who could switch to zombies while agitated without any signs of infection.
Second of all, he found out that the director was the mastermind of the massacre that just occurred.
Third of all, the director could somehow control zombies.
Fourth of all, the apocalypse might have a chance of being related to some evil entity that demanded sacrifices.
Fifth of all, some random kids who were weak a second ago suddenly started talking about some ritualistic conspiracy.
The kids who he had never seen or heard about in his first life before being reborn.
Sixth of all, there was this completely normal young man who he usually saw with them who also gained massive abilities.
Seventh of all, the director wasn't human in any way.
Eighth of all, his system seemed to have killed the random kids who suddenly became evil killers.
Just thinking about it made Jae-Hyun overwhelmed.
Eventually, he decided to retreat.
They had cleared all the zombies from the area and there were only corpses around here.
And a thick stench of blood.
He was worried that there might be zombies lurking around—
or worse, the director could be hiding somewhere about to attack again.
Jae-Hyun was sure that he couldn't beat the director in his current state.
Especially when he didn't have the system.
All his skills and tools were intertwined with the system.
He couldn't use anything without it.
So taking one last glance at the corpses on the ground, the blood that covered the buildings and the ground, the stench of death, the silence of no survivors left at all—
He took it all in, forcing himself to witness the consequences of his failure.
And he vowed to get stronger.
Jae-Hyun didn't spare another glance at Yi Zheng.
He walked away with his back straight and his gaze firm.
His five companions followed silently behind him.
But Park Haeun was the last to leave, and she glanced deeply at one of the corpses.
It was the corpse belonging to Ming Jun.
Her eyes flashed too quick for anyone to notice, and then she walked away.
Yi Zheng snorted at the departing figure and turned to walk away.
His step was a bit excited at the idea of not having to deal with those scary kids.
But suddenly his eyes rolled back and he fainted.
Meanwhile, his shadow at the exact place where the cat poked trembled.
The school was littered with corpses and blood.
Suddenly, the five kids twitched.
They woke up groggy and confused, then panicked as they slowly remembered their state before this.
They looked down at their chest and found no hole.
They sighed in relief.
Honestly, the injury was healed so perfectly that they almost thought it was all a dream.
Unfortunately, there were too many signs that it was not.
First of all, their clothes now had a huge hole in it with blood around it.
They were sitting in a pool of blood, and the smell of corpses was pungent.
"Ahhh!" Mori Aoi was the first to scream.
She started retching because of the blood… so much blood.
The corpses… which had their eyes opened as it bulged in despair.
The smell… of both freshly dead people and the zombies which had been unearthed.
Most importantly, the memories… the memories of killing the zombies so brutally.
The memory that also included some human beings who were trying to run and were in the way.
The memory of fighting the director and the injuries that came with it—like having her hands crushed or her stomach being punched so hard she vomited blood.
The memory of feeling the pain of her chest being torn through.
And most importantly, the memory of placing her hand on Wei Zhi's chest, wanting to kill him.
All of this made her kneel on the ground, vomiting while tears and snot flowed down.
The others too were stimulated by her and also began to puke with tears pouring down.
It was just too scary and disgusting to remember the actions they had performed previously.
"I'm sorry… sorry." Mori Aoi could no longer puke and she crawled to Wei Zhi, mumbling apologies.
She was shaken and held the edge of his shirt while begging for his forgiveness.
She was really scared that they were going to hate her as much as she hated herself right now.
Wei Zhi was terrified too.
His face was pale and he was in tears.
He admittedly flinched when he saw her get close.
He could still feel her hands on his chest.
But then he also remembered how his hands wrapped around her neck, about to rip it off.
"I'm sorry." Wei Zhi's voice was hoarse and he also asked for forgiveness.
Suddenly, Mori Aoi jumped into his arms sobbing.
He flinched and also hugged her, crying.
Suddenly Shae Harris also joined into the hug by latching onto Mori Aoi.
She was also mumbling apologies.
She turned to Noi Karn, who was still dazed, and dragged him over.
Eventually, the five of them huddled together in a group, crying and saying sorry.
They were apologizing to each other for suddenly becoming so scary and for killing so brutally like a monster.
They were begging not to be abandoned.
They were hoping for forgiveness from all the dead people around them.
The word "sorry" that they said so desperately had a lot of meanings.
Eventually, they exhausted themselves and could no longer speak.
Their tears dried up, and they moved away from the group hug.
Mori Aoi, being at the center, was the last to move away from Wei Zhi.
She lingered a moment, still dazed, until Wei Zhi patted her back.
Flustered, she moved back from his embrace but slipped and leaned forward so that her head ended up punching his stomach.
Wei Zhi fell back immediately from the pain and clutched his stomach, hissing.
Mori Aoi had somehow dodged after punching his gut and her head landed on the bloody ground with a small bang.
She just lay there rubbing her head, feeling aggrieved.
"It was a mistake… I swear," she said while pouting.
Shae Harris snickered suddenly because it was funny.
Especially with the face Mori Aoi was making and Wei Zhi, who looked like he wanted to cry.
"I really didn't mean it," Mori Aoi said.
Puff
Shae Harris laughed again but covered her mouth with both hands to block it.
Puff
Ming Jun snickered and also slapped a hand on his mouth.
Then he and Shae Harris locked gazes.
And they couldn't hold it in anymore after that.
They burst out laughing.
Noi Karn was infected by their ridiculous laughter and also chuckled.
"I was just confused and then his stomach suddenly appeared in front of my head," Mori Aoi pouted.
Puff
Noi Karn burst out laughing.
"Hiss, it's not funny. It really hurts," Wei Zhi said, rubbing his stomach.
The laughter grew even louder.
Wei Zhi rubbed his aching stomach with an inexplicable urge to laugh.
He turned to Mori Aoi beside him, who was rubbing her head.
Their eyes locked on each other, rubbing their aching body parts while their mouths twitched into a smile.
They couldn't hold it in anymore and burst out laughing.
That was how the silence of the dead was interrupted by laughter.
The scene that was devastating and traumatic was suddenly at peace as five kids sat on the battlefield laughing.
"I think we've officially gone crazy," Shae Harris said, wiping a tear at the corner.
Puff
Ming Jun started the second round of laughter.
"Ugh, it hurts to laugh so hard, you guys should stop talking," Wei Zhi said, trying to restrain himself.
The others wiped their tears and tried to press their face into a frown.
Puff
Mori Aoi suddenly let out a chuckle.
She blinked at Wei Zhi, feeling guilty because the others started laughing again.
Wei Zhi also couldn't help it either, so he began to laugh.
It took a while for them to calm down, and their mood wasn't as heavy as before.
"I'm sorry," Noi Karn said into the silence.
His voice was hoarse from the laughing and crying.
He was sitting on the ground with his hands wrapped around his knees, not looking at anyone.
"It's okay," Shae Harris said, rubbing his head.
"It's not your fault and it wasn't you anyway," Ming Jun said.
"After all, we're also the same." Mori Aoi was still laying on the ground and her voice was quiet.
"Yeah, I might not know what it was but I guess we're all the same," Wei Zhi said.
"Hey, look on the bright side, we have a good skill," Shae Harris said.
"Yeah, one that we can't control," Ming Jun said, sighing.
"And that we don't know how to make it stop," Mori Aoi said, sighing.
"And that wants to kill the rest of us and we don't know the origin of," Wei Zhi said, sighing too.
"And other people also want to kill us as sacrifices for," Noi Karn added, sighing.
The more you hear, the more depressing it seems.
"But it's a skill. Maybe we are like those main characters that Ming Jun likes to read about," Shae Harris said.
"Hmm, well some main characters usually do have some inexplicable power that is dangerous to them."
"It's usually to add tension in the story to keep readers hooked."
"After all, you don't know when or where you'll go berserk and how long before you're consumed by your own ability," Ming Jun said.
"See, so we're just like them," Shae Harris said.
The others rolled their eyes.
"We're nothing like those people."
"Main characters like that have OP powers that can solo a BOSS while we're actually not that amazing if we couldn't kill the director."
"Second of all, the main characters have the ability to resist, while I doubt we could do anything to resist it—" Ming Jun started.
"Yeah, how did we all come back?" Wei Zhi interrupted.
"I think I saw a black cat punch the sea," Mori Aoi said.
"Me too," the others chorused.
"So we can't even resist at all without external help," Ming Jun said, speechless.
"What if the cat was summoned by us?" Shae Harris argued.
Ming Jun looked at her with a deep look.
Translation: do you really think any of us could have done that?
The others also looked at her like she was stupid.
Shae Harris: squatting in a corner and drawing circles jpg
You guys are so mean ~
"Third of all and the most important, the main characters always have beautiful women around them," Ming Jun ended.
"What if it's not a harem?" Mori Aoi asked.
The others looked at her, surprised.
Mori Aoi: ???
"I didn't know you were also like Ming Jun… I'm not judging or anything but—" Wei Zhi said, looking at Mori Aoi with weird eyes.
"Don't compare me to him," Mori Aoi shouted.
Ming Jun: I was disgusted for no reason.
"Oh… I didn't mean it." Mori Aoi realized her harsh words and started apologizing to Ming Jun.
"It's okay." Ming Jun waved his arms before she started crying again.
"It's okay, we understand what you mean," Shae Harris comforted her.
"Hey!" Ming Jun felt that he could accept it from anyone other than Shae Harris.
"You're also as obsessed with gaming as me," Ming Jun accused her.
"But I'm cool even as a gamer, and you smell body pillows of underaged girls every night," Shae Harris said.
Ming Jun found that he couldn't refute that statement.
Sigh, it's one of the most common humiliations that anime otakus have to go through.
"Oh yeah, your clothes are open," Ming Jun pointed to her torn shirt at the chest.
His eyes were pure with no lust, so Shae Harris didn't find it offensive.
"What about it, are you jealous of my
amazing figure?" Shae Harris pushed out her chest.
Ming Jun snorted at her while looking away, but his ears had a drop of red at the tip.
Puff
Mori Aoi started to laugh and infected the others.
Shae Harris, who was disgusted for no reason: drawing circles on the bloody ground.
You guys are so mean ~
Couldn't even spare a young girl's heart.