Chapter 88

46. Messiah (6)

“Grrrrr!”

Right below, Chairman Je Pung-ho was baring his teeth in front of thousands of zombies.

“Chairman.”

I muttered his name without realizing it.

“Let’s not do this.”

Je Pung-ho led the charge.

Immediately, an almost infinite number of zombies filled the entire road, rushing towards us.

“How is this not possible?!”

I turned to look at I Am Jesus in a hurry.

“No, no! He’s not listening to me!”

I Am Jesus muttered, his face pale with despair.

“No, I can’t use my power. Not now.”

I understand what he’s afraid of.

He’s afraid that when he causes a shockwave, the reaction will make me lose consciousness again.

It’s a reasonable concern.

However, we can’t just get off the motorcycle.

Even if we dismount, it’s questionable whether this guy can separate the soldiers from the true king of the zombies.

With no other choice, we tried to reverse and avoid the zombies.

Vroom---

I felt a bit grateful to Baek Seung-hyun.

For providing us with a vehicle that could race so powerfully even with two humans and two zombies on board.

However, behind us is the city center, the lair of the zombies.

I recalled the map I had input into my mind earlier.

There is no way out.

Every area I thought could be an escape route was filled with an overwhelming number of zombies.

“...”

I might be able to survive on my own.

If I drop one zombie and one human, it would reduce the load on the motorcycle and allow for more aggressive maneuvering.

But I can’t abandon I Am Jesus or his sister.

What I’m carrying is, in a sense, the weight of humanity.

“How is this not possible?”

Now, I can only trust I Am Jesus.

I don’t believe in God or a savior, but right now, I trust this immature guy.

“Eh, eh!”

I Am Jesus rolled his eyes.

“Aha! Dad’s church!”

“Dad’s church?”

“Underground! Underground! Let’s go! It should be fine down there.”

“How?”

“There’s an underground parking lot! Behind the church!”

Vroom---

The moment I heard his words, I sped towards the back of the church at full speed.

There it is.

Though hidden by the collapsed debris, the entrance to the spacious underground parking lot was visible.

We broke through the debris and headed straight down.

Click

I turned on the headlights and looked inside.

The place was filled with corpses.

Bodies that didn’t turn into zombies were scattered everywhere.

They were probably either church members or people who hid here to escape the zombies but never had the chance to turn into zombies because their brains or central nervous systems were damaged.

“Basement level 3! Go to level 3!”

“Level 3?!”

“Yes! I know a place!”

The place I Am Jesus mentioned was a dead-end wall.

“There’s nothing here?”

“Just a moment!”

He got off the motorcycle and felt along the wall.

“I found it!”

When he pressed a hidden button, a shutter camouflaged as a wall began to rise with a mechanical sound.

Inside the shutter was a small garage with a pristine Bentley.

“It’s Dad’s private garage.”

We quickly moved the motorcycle to the empty spot and closed the shutter.

From beyond the underground, the sounds of rapid footsteps and the moans of zombies could be heard.

I drew my axe and looked around.

Sure enough, eyes glinted in the darkness.

There were about fifty of them.

“...Hey.”

I called out to I Am Jesus.

“How is this not possible?”

Boom!

I Am Jesus waved his hand, causing a shockwave.

The fifty pairs of eyes that had been illuminating the darkness scattered and walked towards the second floor.

“Phew...”

“Skeleton. Here. Here.”

I Am Jesus opened a door behind the garage.

“What is it? Is there more?”

“Yeah.”

We entered beyond the garage together.

Inside was a fairly spacious room with a bed.

Everything was in top condition.

The bed was a much better brand than the one I use.

But when I saw the items placed around the room, my appetite dropped.

The room was filled with an alarming number of bizarre adult toys, scattered messily.

When I Am Jesus turned on the lights, the perverted atmosphere of the room became even more intense.

The lighting was pink.

“Where are we?”

I asked, knowing the answer but out of courtesy.

I Am Jesus chuckled and muttered sarcastically.

“A place where Dad brings women.”

“...”

“After he was caught by a reporter and the story came out, he built this in the church basement.”

“...How is the power still on?”

“It’s probably auxiliary power. Dad once told me he got into trouble when the power went out and he was trapped with a woman.”

“I see.”

It’s an amazing family history, but it’s not the issue right now.

I looked at the zombie.

The zombie was still completely obedient to I Am Jesus’s commands.

I pressed my ear against the garage to listen to the situation.

Judging from the sounds, the zombies that came down to the second floor were now mixed with those that came up from the third floor, causing chaos.

We should be safe for a while.

“Alright.”

Now it’s time for the most important task.

Turning the zombie back into a human.

The moment has come for I Am Jesus to ascend from a madman on the bulletin board to the savior of humanity.

I watched him drink water and asked,

“Your sister. Can you turn her back to normal?”

I Am Jesus nodded with a determined face.

“...Yeah!”

Thus, the operation to save humanity began under the obscene pink lighting.

Boom!

I Am Jesus caused a shockwave.

Though I wasn’t right next to him, the shock still made me shudder each time it hit my body.

“...”

It’s painful and a bit scary, but I consider this a baptism.

This is a sacred baptism for me, Park Gyu, who was not chosen by God, to gain a little of the power of the chosen one and get the strength to fight my enemy.

“Sister.”

I Am Jesus looked at the zombie with a solemn face.

An intangible energy seemed to transfer from I Am Jesus to the zombie.

Sure enough,

The zombie’s complexion was returning to a human-like state.

From a grayish white to a milky color with a hint of pink.

Swallow

I watched the miracle unfolding before my eyes, waiting for the next moment.

“Sister. Can you hear me?”

I Am Jesus raised his hand to touch her face.

However, his hand never reached her face.

The moment the woman opened her eyes and saw him,

“Ah! Ah! Ah!”

She screamed and pushed his hand away.

Coincidentally, there were adult toys behind her, and they made her fall backward.

“Ah! Ah! Ah!”

She struggled and tried to get away from I Am Jesus, who was approaching her.

“Sis?!”

I Am Jesus said with a trembling voice.

The sister shouted,

“Get away! Get away from me! You bastard!”

Her movements were filled with more contempt than I had imagined.

“Sis.”

I Am Jesus’s face turned pale.

“You’re a nuisance! With that monkey-like face, where do you get the nerve to come near me! If you weren’t Dad, I wouldn’t even look at you!”

Her face suddenly hardened.

A terrifying expression filled the void, one that was hard to believe came from the same person who had been spouting cold words just moments ago.

“Pastor, don’t do this.”

She was looking at something in the air.

“Why are you doing this? I’ll report you to the police.”

She spoke vividly, as if she could see I Am Jesus’s father right in front of her.

“No, Pastor. You can’t do this. We can’t do this...”

She gestured fearfully towards the air, her face contorting as she cried and laughed, no longer looking at I Am Jesus.

“Pastor, this time only? What will Dong-pil do if he finds out? You know he likes me, right?”

In some unknown dream, she was probably repeating words she had said in the past, soullessly.

“Dong-pil? I don’t care. Honestly, it’s a burden.”

The zombie’s return to humanity was a fleeting illusion.

I Am Jesus’s power could only briefly infuse a dead person with fragmented memories of their life.

Like a person in a dream, this zombie was merely grasping at shattered memories, babbling incoherently.

Like a broken record.

“...”

I inadvertently looked at I Am Jesus.

This immature man, with his scruffy beard and long hair, was staring at the last remnants of the woman he loved, his face frozen, without blinking.

“I’m pregnant. What do we do? Are you going to abandon me like that other woman?”

The words coming from her mouth were so vulgar and base that I turned away and listened to the situation outside.

“...Ugh.”

The moment I looked away, I Am Jesus collapsed.

He buried his head in the bed where he and his father, and probably this woman, had rolled around, and began to sob bitterly.

As he cried, the zombie regained its original color and stood there like a doll, its eyes turning gray and staring blankly at the crying man.

The crying didn’t last long.

I Am Jesus wiped his tears with his sleeve and stood up resolutely.

“Skeleton.”

At that moment, I noticed another change in this man.

“Let’s go.”

I Am Jesus said with a relieved face.

“What?”

“I think we can go.”

“What about your sister?”

In response to my question, I Am Jesus gave a sad smile.

“...She’s just a zombie, after all.”

In that short time, the boy had matured into an adult.

Like a cicada emerging from the darkness, drying its wet wings, and preparing to fly.

Now he is preparing for takeoff.

“Mmm...”

I Am Jesus mentioned the bond between us and shyly smiled at me.

I smiled back and followed him.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Now he was causing shockwaves like a monster.

Emitting a radiant light that enveloped his entire body.

In front of him, the zombies were nothing.

Dusk was falling.

Beyond the darkness, thousands of eyes were watching us, and above them, the faceless monster, like a statue of a profane god, revealed itself again.

Click!

I prepared my weapon and stood beside I Am Jesus.

But in this fight, I probably don’t have a place.

The necromancer type caused a shockwave and swung his arms.

Thousands of zombies rushed towards us all at once.

The sight was like a massive tidal wave approaching.

In the face of that fear, I Am Jesus responded with the same shockwave.

“Go back.”

He said in a hoarse voice.

And a miracle happened.

The zombies running towards us changed direction and attacked their former king.

“Kiaaaaah!!!”

Je Pung-ho was the first to bare his teeth.

Crack!

Leading the charge, thousands of zombies latched onto the monster, starting to tear at its flesh.

The monster’s reflective field, its power to burst bullets, and its ability to cause explosions and electrical currents around it were meaningless in front of countless zombies.

The king who ruled the city of the dead was devoured by the dead, and the city returned to the dead.

“...Let’s go.”

The one who killed the king brushed past me, his long hair flying.

Though countless zombies still blocked our path, they parted to the sides as he approached, like the Red Sea.

*

“Dad wasn’t always a bad person.”

On the way back, I heard the story of his father.

“In the early days of the church, he was a good person. Kind, diligent, and deeply religious. He knew every part of the Bible. Mom was gone, but Dad did the work of two people.”

He looked at the cargo area.

We had to leave the satellite equipment behind to carry the zombie, but the small game console and game cartridges were still there, crushed under the packaging.

“This game console was also a gift from Dad.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. When I was in elementary school, I sang for the latest game console. The one that plays Blu-rays. But Dad didn’t have the money. So he gave me a classic game console that a church member’s family had thrown away.”

He took out one of the game cartridges.

I know which game it is.

It’s a bestseller from the past that he tried to beat when I was trying to befriend him.

I Am Jesus looked at the faded game cartridge with a sad expression and put it back in the cargo area.

“Maybe those days were better.”

“The past is often romanticized.”

“Maybe.”

We were heading to I Am Jesus’s bomb shelter.

He said there were still some things he hadn’t picked up.

The sun had set, and the darkness of night covered the city, but there was nothing to worry about.

What I’m concerned about is this young man’s mental state.

“Dad committed too many sins. He probably went to hell.”

His voice was as unstable as his state of mind.

It’s understandable.

There were too many things for a kid who had been living in the dark, cut off from human interaction, to handle.

“Don’t worry about your father. Focus on calming down and resting now.”

It’s sincere advice.

Extreme emotional swings can drive a person mad.

Especially someone as delicate and immature as I Am Jesus.

“...Dad.”

Tears were welling up in I Am Jesus’s eyes again.

“I, I...”

He muttered in a hoarse voice.

“If I had just said something...”

“Would that have changed him?”

“Yes.”

I Am Jesus said with a confident face.

“Dad would have done anything I said.”

“Really?”

“If I told him to die, he would.”

“...Hmm.”

“Dad’s money drove me mad too. Even though I knew he was becoming strange, I turned a blind eye, which led to this mess.”

Now, a familiar wall panel was in sight.

We had arrived at I Am Jesus’s bomb shelter.

“This bomb shelter was also made by Dad.”

“Figures.”

While he went inside the bomb shelter, I looked at the night sky outside absentmindedly.

I guess I can’t be a gentleman.

The fact that I still have a piece of the power in my body, as evidenced by the sheet I keep biting, shows that.

“Skeleton!”

I Am Jesus came out of the bomb shelter.

“Let’s go!”

He handed me something.

“What’s this?”

It’s a cross made of gold.

“I thought I should give you something since you came to get me.”

“Between us, don’t be surprised by the toilet.”

“Toilet?”

“Let’s go.”

Just as we were about to load the most important cargo and return,

“Aren’t you getting on?”

I Am Jesus was looking at the ground.

Specifically, at the zombie.

The one I had chopped with my axe earlier.

“What’s up?”

“No, I suddenly wanted to see the zombie’s face.”

“Why? Do you know him?”

“No, just...”

I got off the motorcycle and flipped the zombie’s body over.

The distorted face of a middle-aged man, struck by the axe, was revealed under the moonlight.

A face with no distinctive features.

But suddenly, the face of a man I had seen on the news flashed through my mind.

“Ah.”

I looked at I Am Jesus.

“Dad?”

Perfectly expressionless.

But then he collapsed in front of the corpse, grabbing its cold hand and burying his face in its chest.

“...Dad.”

The zombie I had split the head of with my axe was none other than I Am Jesus’s father.

*

“So, what happened? Skeleton?”

Soo asked, showing interest while eating jelly.

Rebecca, stirring the soup made from canned food with a large spoon, glanced at my back as I recounted the last moments of I Am Jesus that I knew.

“He went back to the city.”

“To the city full of zombies? You don’t mean to die?!”

I shook my head at the surprised Soo.

“No.”

I recalled his last moments.

The man, glowing in the darkness, walked towards the countless masses opening their mouths towards him, arms outstretched.

“...He went to save the zombies.”

“Like a messiah?”

“Maybe.”

I took out the sheet from my pocket with a bitter smile.

It was still black.

So, this guy is not my messiah, at least.

I’m not interested in that either.

“Mmm!”

The messiah, shouting strange words and shaking the game cartridges and adult toys,

Rebecca said he was crazy, but I don’t agree with her.

Since that day, I sometimes have dreams.

I don’t remember the content, but the color is always grayish white.