Walking Daddy

“I was wondering who the leader of those damn bastards was. It’s you, huh?”

“...”

I remained silent as I regenerated my broken ribs. The boss raised his eyebrows and broke the silence.

“Oh man, what do we have here? A pair of blue eyes? How dare you eat my men and grow stronger?”

“Frankly speaking, they weren’t that helpful.”

“Hahaha! This guy’s got guts!”

The boss smiled cheerfully and stashed his hands in his pockets. I couldn’t help but be surprised. Putting his hands in his pockets while facing me was the last thing I thought he’d do. I wondered if he was mocking me.

When I frowned, the boss scratched his head.

“You sure have courage, following me. I’ll give you that. Did you hunt me down alone?”

“It doesn’t take a lot of people to catch a rat, does it?”

“A rat? Who’s calling who a rat?”

“You’re acting like a rat, without the slightest clue what’s going to happen to you next. “

His mouth twitched as though he was trying to stop himself from laughing. Then he snorted and he put his right hand on his face. Between his fingers, I could see his blue eyes flash.

Bang!

The wall on the left went down and a large figure appeared. My jaws fell to the ground as I fixed my eyes on it. The rock that I’d seen earlier was a mutant. I could tell with one look what its desire was. It was one of the main characters of a foreign fantasy film—the hero whose body was made out of rock.

I couldn’t help but think that the mutant had a unique taste, as that particular hero was the least popular one among the main characters in that movie. I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“I see you got yourself a cute underling,” I said to the boss.

“Those guts of yours—let’s see how much longer you can stay that way.”

Thud–

Another mutant appeared next to the boss. From the way it stared at me the moment it landed, I could sense that things were going to get ugly. I swallowed reflexively when I saw its face. It had the face of the being who had wiped out an entire organization just because one of them had killed his dog.

The mutant had the face of Keanu Reeves from the movie John Wick. But then I came back to the realization that, despite its appearance, its essence was still that of a zombie.

‘Don’t be afraid and stay focused.’

I clenched my fists and flashed my blue eyes. After a moment, the boss spoke.

“Kill him.”

The stage-three mutants rushed toward me at once. I could barely take care of one stage-three mutant; two stage-three mutants were too much for me to handle. But there was a reason I’d been buying time by chatting with the boss.

‘Now!’

The moment I gave the order through my mind, the ceiling collapsed, and a thick cloud of dust obscured my view. The stage-three mutants approaching me covered their faces with their arms and furrowed their brows.

"My child…”

The low, eerie voice drifted through the dust, sending a small tingle through my feet. Next to Ji-Eun, the dozens of eyeballs belonging to each of my thirty nine stage-one mutants were rolling around as they scanned the surroundings.

Ji-Eun narrowed her eyes at Keanu in front of her, frowning so hard that her face was covered in wrinkles. Her ten fingers elongated to almost a meter each. All of my mutants let out throat-rending cries as they got ready to fight.

The boss was taken aback by the sudden appearance of my mutants. I could tell he had been focusing solely on me while blocking off all of his other senses. And besides, it would have been difficult for him to notice my mutants, since they hadn’t let out their killing intent as they approached.

I looked directly into the boss’ eyes.

“Let’s put an end to this.”

KIAAA!!!

The thirty-nine stage-one mutants rushed toward the rock mutant while Ji-Eun stretched out her hands and closed the distance with Keanu.

I gritted my teeth and flashed toward the boss, steam rising from my body. The boss’ eyes widened, and he quickly dropped into a defensive posture.

Swoosh–

I swung my clenched fist towards his face. He blocked with his left arm, steam rising from his body as his own eyes flashed. His right foot came flying toward my side.

I knew I had to stay close to him because the tip of his foot would strike with the most force. Since it was too late to avoid his kick, I knew there was only one option for me. Instead of backing away, I moved toward the boss. As I got closer, the boss’ eyes widened. He wore a puzzled expression, as if he couldn’t figure out my intentions. As his right leg came toward me, I wrapped my left arm around his thigh.

Using centrifugal force, I slammed his body to the ground.

Bang!!!

The asphalt cracked, sending debris flying. I pressed on, raining punches down on him.

‘Faster, faster! Faster, damn it!’\'

I attacked nonstop while biting my lower lip. He kept taking my punches as I slowly hammered him down to the earth.

Grasp!

The boss, who had been defending himself so far, reached out his right arm and grabbed my collar. He pulled on my upper body as hard as he could. I couldn\'t withstand his power, and my face slammed against the ground.

I lost focus for a second, and the brief moment felt like an eternity. The piercing whine ringing through my eardrums strained my consciousness. I shook my head and blinked. Fortunately, the blurriness quickly went away.

The boss launched himself up off the ground and came at me with a kick. A kick from a blue-eyed zombie that was letting out steam… The amount of force behind it would be enough to shatter most pillars.

Thud!!

I hurriedly protected my chest with my arms, but the strike shattered my left arm. I flew a couple of meters back, as if I was defying gravity. The impact left a constant ringing in my head, but I snapped myself out of it and focused on the boss again. I glared at him.

When I straightened, I saw the boss panting. He was gritting his teeth and holding onto his chest, as though my rain of punches earlier on had injured him. It seemed like the punches that had landed around his ribs and chest, damaging his lungs.

I knew better than to give him time to regenerate. I also knew that, if his lungs were damaged, his balance would be off as well.

“GWAAA!”

I launched myself off from the ground as I let out more steam. Using my acceleration to increase my momentum, I punched the boss with all my might. He saw my fist coming his way and pulled his right foot back to lower his center of gravity. He twisted at the waist to return the punch.

POW!!!

His fist was crushed, and his upper body rocked backward. Despite all the swaying, he managed to stay on his feet. Unfortunately, the impact had crushed my right arm as well, and my shoulder blade was dislocated. However, I harnessed the momentum and acceleration that I still had and went for the still-reeling boss. My eyes were locked on his neck, and I revealed my sharp teeth.

The boss quickly twisted his upper body and came at me with a roundhouse kick.

Smack!

His kick connected squarely with my temple. Thankfully, there wasn’t much force behind it because he hadn’t been able to generate much momentum, but it had struck me in a weak spot nonetheless.

Everything in front me flickered for a second. My mind grew hazy and began to sink into a deep abyss, as if I was on a rollercoaster that only went down. To make matters worse, I couldn\'t even plant my hands on the ground because my arms were broken. However, even though I was rolling on the ground, I continued to accelerate my blood flow.

“GWAAA!!!!”

I let out a roar that dragged my mind out from the abyss it had sunk into, and quickly took in the air around me.

Boing–

A human shadow flew overhead, accompanied by a sonic boom.

\'Above.’

I could sense him even without seeing him with my own two eyes. My senses were telling me that the boss had jumped into the air and was freefalling straight toward my head. Fighting against the boss sent chills that went down my spine and heightened my senses, so that I could pick up things I would not have normally felt. I could tell where the boss was without having to see him, as if every single cell within me was alive.

I quickly rolled my body aside and avoided the boss.

Thud!

The impact blew out a huge cloud of dust, obscuring my vision as dust drifted into my mouth, eyes, and ears.

Although we were both blue-eyed zombies, I could sense the power difference between me and the boss. The maximum number of underlings I could control was two thousand three hundred. Given his strength, I assumed that the boss could control more, almost close to three thousand.

I realized that I was no match for his strength. The fight was leaning toward one side, but not mine.

“You fucking bastard… How dare you…”

Steam rose from the boss’ body as he slowly regenerated his damaged chest. Steam was rising from me as well, but the boss wasn’t willing to wait. He raised his right foot and slammed a heel into my head.

“GAAA!”

I reflexively let out a wail. My face, along with the back of my head, was stuck into the ground. To make matters worse, shards of asphalt pierced my left eyeball, making me lose my sense of perspective.

I stared at the boss with my one good eye. He frowned and clenched his fists. After a moment, his right arm began to grow bigger. Once his forearm grew to about one-and-a-half times its usual size, he let out more steam and pronounced my fate.

“Die, you fucking bastard.”

His large, strengthened arm came flying toward my skull.

I knew I had to avoid his attack. Getting hit head-on would mean instant death.

Despite the thoughts in my mind, the only thing my body did was flop about like a salmon leaping out of the water. My body wasn’t moving the way I wanted it to, and I couldn’t help but think that my brain wasn’t functioning properly because of the damage to my head during this fight. The moment felt like an eternity; my whole life began to flash before my eyes.

\'No, no.\'

Although I was denying what was happening to me in my head, I couldn\'t do anything to change the tragic reality. The only thing I could do was to grit my teeth and hope that I could withstand his attack.

Bang!

The boss in front of me disappeared, and my eardrums rang with the sound of a sonic boom. My eyes could barely focus on the being that had taken the boss’ place. It was Kim Hyeong-Jun, his body wrapped in thick clouds of steam. His brow was furrowed in anger.

He gave me a sidelong glance, and in the midst of all this, he smirked.

“Did someone call for a hero?” he said.

I couldn’t believe that I was that happy to see his face. Of course, being the person I was, I hid my feelings and bit my lower lip instead. I merely looked at him.

“I was wondering when you were going to show up, you latecomer,” I said.

He snorted.

“I arrived earlier than I would have when I was still a student,” he joked.

Clink, clink.

Pieces of the fallen wall went flying left and right as the boss freed himself from the rubble. His flesh had been mercilessly torn away. He glared at Kim Hyeong-Jun with eyes full of anger.

“There are… two of you with blue eyes?”

Kim Hyeong-Jun sneered and gave the boss the middle finger.

“Why? Do you have a problem with that?”

The boss didn’t know anything about the Survivors Rally Organization. He had regarded us as puny beings, like bugs that were trying their best to break down the impossible. He was soon going to pay the price for his arrogance and lack of information.

The boss gritted his teeth and roared, the strain of it making the veins in his neck pop out.

Thud, thud, thud.

The ground started to rumble, and I saw thousands of zombies making their way toward us from the direction of Gwanak-san.

Honestly, I wasn’t surprised at all. I knew that he must have had other underlings with him. I could tell that he was planning on preserving his underlings and leaving Seoul, since that would make it much easier for him to become the leader of a different region again.

However, now that the unexpected had happened, he was going all-in. To match his efforts, I accelerated the flow of my blood, causing more steam to rise from my body. Thankfully, I had regenerated my damaged body, and I could use my arms again. I pushed myself up from the ground with a sigh.

As I let out the tension within me, my body—which had lost its coordination earlier—felt lighter, almost as if I had entered a state of tranquility. Kim Hyeong-Jun glanced over at me.

“How many underlings do you have left?” he asked.

I rubbed my stiff neck and looked around. Mood-Swinger was still fighting the rock mutant, and the other stage-three mutant was battling Ji-Eun in a deadly contest of individual mobility and flexibility.

As for the stage-one mutants, there were only half of them left. I had brought thirty-nine of them with me in the beginning. The remaining nineteen stage-one mutants were assisting Mood Swinger and Ji-Eun in their fight. Thanks to their support, the battle between the stage-three mutants was leaning toward the side of the Survivors Rally organization.

I looked over at Kim Hyeong-Jun.

“I’ll have my underlings take out the other ones,” I said, “All we need to do is catch him.”

“Okay.”

I ordered my nineteen stage-one mutants to block off the zombies that were coming our way. They screamed and ran toward Gwanak-san. I crouched down and clenched my fists. Kim Hyeong-Jun’s eyes were also locked onto the boss as he accelerated the flow of his blood.

The boss gritted his teeth as he saw everything leaning toward the side of the Survivors Rally Organization. He looked nervous. It seemed like he had implicitly acknowledged that he had no chance of winning.

There was only one option left for the boss. Either fight to the bitter and disastrous end, or humbly accept his fate. But it didn’t matter what he was going to do.

His fate wasn’t going to change.