Chapter 16

Looking around with a sense of unease, I noticed it.

There, suspicious figures were emerging like mushrooms after the rain.

“What the hell is that?”

As I blinked my eyes, carefully observing whatever was approaching the store…

Through the large glass window, their identities became crystal clear.

“Grrrrrrr….”

“Squeak, squeak…!”

Corpses moving while dripping sticky liquid on the ground.

In this world, they’re considered weaker versions of ghouls – zombies.

And their numbers weren’t just one or two, but dozens filling up the entire street.

Even for a trained Pixie, this overwhelming quantity was dangerous enough to be fatal if they let their guard down.

“Ah! What the hell are you doing to my freshly cleaned street!”

But now wasn’t the time for me to worry about that.

The shocking scene of the clean street I had prepared for customers being instantly dirtied by corpse ooze…

In a fit of rage, I used telekinesis to grab every zombie’s neck in sight.

Then squeezed them as if bursting rotten tomatoes.

CRACK!

All the zombies’ necks exploded simultaneously, and dozens of motionless corpses collapsed on the ground.

Ghouls have skin as hard as rocks, so breaking their necks requires multiple twists.

But zombies, made from rotting corpses, actually had softer bodies than regular humans, making this possible.

“Huff… What’s happening outside? Let’s go take a look.”

Using telekinesis too forcefully made my head spin, but I rushed out of the store to assess the situation.

What greeted me was complete chaos.

The streets were packed with an overwhelming number of zombies and people fleeing from them.

So this was why there were so many zombies…

They must have followed those people, walking out from inside the alleyways.

“…Guess I’ll just get rid of everything in sight. How annoying.”

Telekinesis worked better against multiple weak enemies rather than one strong opponent.

While limited in power output, the intervals between attacks within range were shorter.

And zombies aren’t real corpses – they’re animated through necromancy.

Meaning, delicate power control wasn’t necessary here.

SNAP! CRUNCH!

Thus, turning all the zombies in the street into corpses took only a few seconds.

“Zombies…”

“Huh, what happened?”

“We’re saved!”

Those who were being attacked by zombies in real-time showed confusion as the zombies suddenly collapsed lifelessly.

Since telekinesis leaves no traces…

It probably looked like the zombies’ heads just burst and fell over.

Well, as long as nobody finds out it was me, it’s not something to worry about.

Everyone was either resisting the zombies or running away frantically, so nobody noticed me.

But there was one thing bothering me more than that.

So I ignored the various reactions from people and crouched down to carefully examine the zombie corpses.

“This is…”

One feeling of discomfort I had – the zombies looked strange.

Instead of spilling guts and organs like they should, they only dripped black liquid?

Upon closer inspection of the torn neck…

I could see the insides were filled with black, sticky substance instead of flesh and bones.

“So, they weren’t real corpses after all.”

No wonder there were so many of them.

Which meant someone intentionally released fake zombies throughout the Western Labyrinth.

“I remember reading about this in Pixie records… The Night of Blood incident. The culprit was a vampire named Drakel, right?”

Something seemed familiar.

The Night of Blood incident led by Drakel, a vampire with ambitions to turn part of the underworld into a vampire autonomous zone.

An enormous number of zombies, powerful ghoul legions, and elite vampires indiscriminately attacking the residents of the underworld…

Until they were eventually defeated by the protagonist group.

But something felt off.

If the Night of Blood incident was happening, shouldn’t several preceding episodes have occurred first?

“I haven’t even heard of Aisha, Kodeoria’s idol yet.”

Aisha, the idol who became the first client after the protagonist group formed.

Not hearing anything about her was troubling.

Considering her meteoric rise from unknown idol to major star…

Even in the underworld, I should’ve at least heard her name once.

But without any news about her, the Night of Blood incident suddenly occurs?

This clearly shows the original storyline has slightly shifted.

“Could it be… because of me?”

Come to think of it, about two months ago…

There was a vampire persistently chasing me due to the smell of blood.

I completely forgot about him since he seemed so weak.

But thinking back, dragging around that many ghouls meant he wasn’t an ordinary vampire.

Even though ghouls are like small fry to Pixies, they’re still nightmare-level monsters by civilian standards.

What if that vampire and those ghouls were connected to Drakel? And somehow messed up his plans?

It wouldn’t be impossible for the Night of Blood incident to be brought forward.

“Hmm… This might become a bit problematic.”

In the original story, Drakel the vampire gets his heart pierced by Raven, the protagonist…

Then Alice cleanly beheads him, finishing him off.

Meaning, as long as the protagonist group intervenes, it would normally be resolved.

Whether ghouls, zombies, or vampires – everything fades before overwhelming strength.

But what if, for some reason, the protagonist group never meets Drakel?

“In the original, a client who lost family to vampires became the connection to Drakel. But with the timeline moved forward… such connections likely don’t exist anymore.”

If my guess is correct…

Probably, until double-digit ranked Pixies from the city arrive to handle the situation, this crisis won’t settle.

Because we wouldn’t know where Drakel, the mastermind, is while zombies keep pouring in from somewhere.

And that wasn’t a good thing.

“…Who do they think they are, trying to destroy the Western Labyrinth?”

While it wasn’t particularly precious to me, it had grown on me these past few weeks.

There were people who thanked me, others who cheered me on.

Especially, I couldn’t stand seeing the bakery uncle getting involved.

So I tried to rush toward the Western Labyrinth where the situation occurred…

Until I realized I was still in maid outfit without my usual cloth wrap.

“Ugh… Going out like this won’t work. I need to find my cloth quickly…”

“Looking for this?”

“Huh?”

Whoosh.

Suddenly, something white was thrown beside me.

Instinctively catching it, I realized it was my usual white cloth.

Turning my head, I saw Greg standing at the shop entrance.

He must’ve figured I was going to look for my cloth just by looking at me.

How did he know?

Confused that he read my intentions, I rolled my eyes around. Greg casually answered as if it was obvious.

“The situation inside must concern you, right?”

“…”

“Hmm, hurry back soon. I’ll take care of the shop cleanup.”

Perhaps it’s true what they say about emotion readers having sharp eyes.

I’ve noticed before – his observational skills were frightening.

Well, if my intentions can be understood without words, that’s a good thing.

Bowing slightly to Greg, I dashed toward the back alleys with the cloth in my arms.

When I reached where zombies appeared again…

I quickly wrapped myself in the cloth and crushed a zombie’s head underfoot while jumping onto a rooftop.

It was Ghost’s return after a short break.

*

Jumping between rooftops in the darkened Western Labyrinth, I began to understand the situation.

“This is quite a mess. There isn’t a single alley without zombies.”

The usually quiet back alleys were swarming with zombies.

No, make that overflowing with zombies.

Beyond a mere horde, it was practically a tsunami of zombies.

There were so many that just looking down at them made my eyes dizzy.

“Shit! What the hell is this! Where are these zombies endlessly coming from!”

“Damn corpses! All of you die already!”

The fortunate thing was that bounty hunters targeting me were stationed in every alley.

They were somewhat controlling this absurd number of zombies.

Maybe they really did have enough skill to protect themselves.

Or perhaps these fake-corpse zombies were weaker than regular ones.

Anyway, thanks to the bounty hunters, civilian casualties were being minimized.

“This isn’t working! Hey, let’s run away! We’ll die for nothing at this rate!”

“Tsk… You’re right! What’s more important than our lives?”

Of course, bounty hunters aren’t charity workers – they’re greedy money-grubbers.

Tired of the endless waves of zombies, some bounty hunters started retreating.

Why would anyone risk their lives to protect the underworld?

“Hey! Black Organization issued a request! 100 credits per zombie head!”

“W, what? Hundred credits!”

“That means 10,000 credits for 100 heads! What are you waiting for! Start hunting!”

“Woohoo! Money money!”

But perhaps the Black Organization decided to use bounty hunters to deal with the zombie situation.

Throwing ridiculous amounts of money, the frontline of bounty hunters started stabilizing again.

“How much money does the Black Organization have?”

Hop hop.

Jumping between rooftops using telekinesis, I couldn’t help but make a face at the organization’s outrageous financial attack.

No wonder they threw such a huge amount like 700,000 credits on weak little me.

Solving everything with money…

From a third-party perspective, it’s quite flashy. But for those involved, it’s maddening.

This way, I didn’t need to worry too much about zombies while the bounty hunters held their ground.

Feeling slightly relieved, I ran aimlessly through the Western Labyrinth searching for the vampire…

Until I suddenly stopped near a certain building.

“Aah…”

Before I could think, I jumped from the rooftop and landed in front of the building.

Looking up at it…

My eyes caught sight of the collapsed state of my regular bakery.

The bakery can’t fall!

Using telekinesis, I desperately moved the fallen debris aside.

Clearing, clearing, clearing…

Once the entrance blocked by rubble opened up…

I found the bakery uncle collapsed under the debris.

Rushing over and checking his condition…

Fortunately, apart from some blood loss, it wasn’t life-threatening.

“Urgh… Y-you… Customer?”

“…”

“Did… did you save me? Thank you…”

The bakery uncle, regaining consciousness, smiled weakly while looking up at me.

Moving his head slightly to survey his destroyed shop, he said:

“Haha, sorry… It seems I won’t be able to make bread for a while…”

Sadness filled the uncle’s eyes as he apologized.

Perhaps it was the sorrow of seeing his cherished shop, full of memories and affection, collapse in an instant.

Seeing the uncle who had been so kind to me forcing himself through pain…

I felt a cold emotion burning inside my chest.

“…”

“T-this is…!”

I quietly stood up.

Without hiding my telekinesis, I picked up the rubble and created a barricade to block zombies.

The bakery uncle watched in shock, eyes wide open.

He probably realized I was a ghost just from this.

Was he disappointed?

When I silently looked at him, despite struggling from being buried under debris, he grinned and said:

“Heh heh… To think you were a ghost, customer… I’ve been serving quite an amazing person!”

“…”

Whoosh.

I turned away from him.

Walking through the gap in the barricade, I stepped out of the shop.

For some reason, even after showing my powers, I felt strangely light-hearted.

“I’m just a ghost right now… It doesn’t matter if I act out a bit, right?”

For some reason, I felt like I had to beat up that vampire real good.

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