Antisocial Chapter 18

Chapter 18. Immunity

It was like a bouncing ball—small, quick, and incredibly agile.

However, Do-kyung effortlessly seized the monster’s head, which had been targeting him. Testing its strength, he gradually tightened his grip.

“Kk… rrr….”

Pop! The head the size of a fist burst open like a watermelon. However, a red fog did not burst out.

“……”

“……”

Those who lacked the courage to grab the monster’s head couldn’t tell whether the head was soft or if Do-kyung’s dark power was simply immense.

They could only stare, wide-eyed, at the man who was more monstrous than the creature itself.

Do-kyung tossed his blood-soaked leather gloves onto the floor and eyed the four slaves, as if selecting his next victim.

Sensing the danger, Bo-yeon clung to them in fear.

“T-that’s enough. Let’s go, please…”

“If it gets dangerous, I’ll take you with me. I promise.”

“……”

If this isn’t dangerous, what on earth does he consider a threat?

Bo-yeon broke down in tears.

***

She had come back alive.

That thought filled Bo-yeon’s mind as she returned to the bunker.

Do-kyung took turns sending in the slaves, using them as bait to lure the monsters. When they emerged, baby monsters were attached to their bodies.

The outcome was always the same. The further they got from the department store, the weaker they became.

Fortunately, Bo-yeon’s heart, which had been tight with tension, seemed to be okay.

To be precise, Do-kyung had handled the situation. However, the thought of those things pulsing on the slaves’ bodies was still unsettling and terrifying. The men who had been bitten, their blood drained in turn, became pale, feverish, and anemic.

Bo-yeon’s complexion also grew pale, but Do-kyung didn’t push her further.

Still, none of the four had been infected. Whether it was due to their small size or another factor, the creatures’ infectious power hadn’t been enough to breach their immune systems.

Bo-yeon, who had not slept properly for three days, fell asleep exhausted. And the next day, she woke up with a nightmare of all kinds of baby monsters’ blood and internal organs splattering.

“Uheuk…”

It was the start of an ominous and uneasy day.

Bo-yeon ate breakfast, then went out to the yard to fly the drone. The target was the department store.

“The control range is 5 km, so it should reach the department store. The problem is time—it can only stay in the air for about 30 minutes. Considering recovery time, there’s not much left. Will we have enough time to explore the inside?”

“You can fly it multiple times, so take your time.”

The drone’s maximum speed was 50 km per hour. Flying through the open sky, it reached the department store in no time.

“It arrived.”

The image captured by the drone’s camera appeared on the remote controller screen. Do-kyung, sitting next to Bo-yeon, stared intently at the display.

He was a man oddly fixated on mutants, and a quiet, fierce violence gleamed in his face as it reflected on the screen.

“Looks like they’ve hatched an egg…”

Scattered across the department store floor were grayish glowing spheres. They were irregularly shaped, like pearls that had burst and spilled everywhere, but there were many of them.

Bo-yeon, knowing exactly what the spheres were, couldn’t suppress a sense of unease.

“Go upstairs.”

Do-kyung gave a soft command. Department stores typically don’t have windows, and with the power outage, it should be darker the farther they moved from the first floor, where sunlight could still seep in.

However, the glowing spheres grew more numerous as they ascended.

They clustered together like fireflies hanging from the walls of a cave. A creeping sense of unease settled over Bo-yeon, and her hands, gripping the remote controller, became sweaty. Whirrr. The drone hummed softly as it flew upward, reaching the ceiling near the escalator on the 9th floor.

When it reached the top of the department store, a massive light came into view. At first, she thought it was a group of lights fluttering together, but upon closer inspection, she realized there was only one. It was enormous, stretching from the floor to the ceiling of the 9th floor.

“What is that?”

“I was worried, but you found it right away.”

The small glowing bodies swarmed around the giant sphere, moving in a way that reminded her of bees.

The tentacles attached to the softly glowing bodies clung to them like suckers. Dark red liquid from the small luminous bodies’ intestines flowed into the giant sphere.

All of those luminous bodies were doing the same thing, like filling a beehive with honey.

“Hey, I’ll switch to night vision…”

Bo-yeon manipulated the remote with trembling hands. The black-and-white screen brightened slightly.

“Ugh…!”

Bo-yeon frowned, squeezing her eyes shut. An afterimage lingered in her mind. Corpses were scattered across the floor. It was hard to tell whether they were human or zombie. Mutants were mixed in too.

It seemed like they had dragged in their prey and left them on the top floor. The small luminous bodies fed on the corpses, transferring all the blood and flesh to the giant luminous body.

“Turn on the lights.”

“Lights? W-won’t they rush in?”

“Prepare to retreat.”

“…….”

Bo-yeon put on the goggles to better control the drone. The view from the drone filled her eyes, as if she were playing a VR game.

She didn’t understand why she felt so disgusted watching it on the screen. She tried to convince herself that it was just a screen, biting her lip to suppress the discomfort.

“Don’t bite your lip.”

She steeled herself and attempted to turn the lights slowly. However, her fingers misaligned due to Do-kyung’s presence, and the light exploded into brightness.

In the darkness, the lights blazed as brightly as the sun, and all the eyes turned red in unison, fixated on the drone. She couldn’t distinguish between their irises and the whites of their eyes.

Creekkk! The monsters, having discovered the intruder, squealed and rushed toward the drone. It bounced up like a spring and tried to latch onto the drone’s body.

Tentacles brushed against the camera lens. Sharing the drone’s view, Bo-yeon could almost feel it creeping up her own body.

“Uheuk… Hic, I don’t like it….” 

“What are you doing? You have to run away.” 

“Uwak! Too many, ak! Ah… D-don’t come… It’s gross! Ahhk!” 

Bo-yeon’s fingers moved quickly, a muffled scream escaping her as she tried to avoid alerting the zombies outside the house. Do-kyung rested his chin on Bo-yeon’s trembling shoulder, his breath brushing against her earlobe.

“Hoo…” His exhalation lingered, unsettlingly close.

“Don’t, play, around—uwahk! Don’t come…!”

Bo-yeon shuddered, her shoulders jerking as she tried to steady herself. Her voice came out hoarse, tinged with frustration and fear. The soft, giggling laughter echoed in her mind, almost like an auditory hallucination.

She couldn’t afford to be shocked by the strange sound. All her focus was on safely guiding the drone and shaking off the disgusting things sticking to her eyes.

The drone plunged downward in a sharp, precise descent, almost as if showing off. The monsters, relentless, followed at an incredible speed, chasing it as it headed straight for the first floor.

As if they shared the same instinct, the monsters waiting on the lower floor launched themselves at the drone. One of them slammed into the propeller, nearly causing it to crash.

The drone barely managed to reach the first floor, veering sharply as it rushed through the shattered glass door.

Despite the urgency, the drone wasn’t free from danger. A monster clung to its body, its writhing form completely obstructing the camera lens. It was only a matter of time before it lost its strength and plummeted, falling away after being thrown too far.

“Nhhk… I survived….”

Bo-yeon mumbled, her mind shattered from the adrenaline rush. She couldn’t bear to look at any more zombies. In a panicked reflex, she shot the drone high into the sky, sending it out of the danger zone.

Her heartbeat slowly steadied as the screen filled with peaceful clouds, a stark contrast to the chaos she’d just witnessed. Bo-yeon wiped the sweat from her brow, realizing she had barely caught her breath. She carefully removed the goggles, her face still flushed with anxiety.

“Did you see anything when you turned on the light? It was… so fleeting…”

“I saw it.”

“I’m glad it helped….”

Do-kyung stood up after Bo-yeon retrieved the drone. She couldn’t believe it, but Do-kyung was already choosing a gun.

“Right now… You’re not seriously thinking about going after that thing, are you?”

“You stay here.”

“Noooo! Main body? Leader? Queen? I don’t even know what to call it…! Anyway, how do you plan to catch that thing?”

Bo-yeon had always felt a certain distance from Do-kyung, even though they were close. But now, it seemed as if her fear had completely faded, replaced by the shock of the chase. She kept nagging him.

“That’s not courage, it’s recklessness. Are you sure you’re thinking clearly? Didn’t you see it earlier? They were rushing in like a swarm of ants! It’s no different than walking into a beehive covered in honey! You’ll be torn apart!”

Do-kyung chuckled, amused by Bo-yeon’s reaction.

“Are you cursing me?”

“I’m worried!”

Bo-yeon screamed, then quickly recoiled, scanning her surroundings. She must have been louder than she realized, as zombies began to gather.