Chapter 81


    - You’re right. Stage-one mutants all mutate with simr appearances, but from stage two onward, their appearances change. I don’t know what makes them different, but stage-two mutants lookpletely different from each other.


    I was able to easily create stage-one mutants, thanks to the Seongsu-dong leader’s exnation.


    However, the Seongsu-dong leader also didn’t know much about the stage-two mutants. I massaged my temples as I turned the question over in my mind.


    ‘He said that appearances of the stage-two mutants will change… What if this is rted to desire somehow?’


    The Seongsu-dong leader mentioned that the stage-one mutants that stopped craving others’ desires satisfied the conditions to be stage-two mutants.


    Why would they stop craving others’ desires?


    I massaged my stiff neck and recalled another thing that the Seongsu-dong leader told me.


    - That''s what they want. Another new drama. All they do is kill and eat humans and zombies in order to continue their dreams.


    If we equated dreams and desires, that would mean that stage-two mutants had no desires or dreams.


    ‘Desires, dreams, dramas…’


    I tried to think about what the three had inmon.


    ‘Wait… Drama?’


    My eyes widened. Sensing I was about to unlock the secret, I started to rack my brain.


    A sudden sh of inspiration struck, and an idea surfaced in my mind.


    When it came to desires, there were selfish desires and altruistic desires.


    Everyone had different dreams, and there were different genres of dramas.


    As I thought hard about it, I realized that I had only focused on the fact that their desires had disappeared, not necessarily on why they had disappeared.


    The reason they lost their desires; the reason they gave up on their dreams.


    Normally when a person gave up on something, it started when confronted by a harsh reality.


    However, I wondered what would make mutants, which were essentially zombies, give up.


    Something they couldn’t do.


    Something they couldn’t do on their own.


    No matter how much I thought about it, the most frustrating thing was not having the ability to speak.


    But then, why wasmunicating necessary?


    Because it was necessary to exchange opinions with others.


    Then what did these mutants want to say? What did they want to gain through acquiring the ability to speak?


    As I kept on asking myself questions, I finally stumbled upon some answers.


    ‘Their opinions, thoughts, or personality traits?’


    Since they were dead beings, I removed the concept of opinions and thoughts from the equation.


    I wondered if I had to take out personality traits as well.


    ‘Wait, no… Personality traits could reflect their desires.’


    Desires reflected their wishes, and wishes were reflected in their immutable personality traits.


    But since the Seongsu-dong leader had mentioned that mutants’ appearances changed as they became stage-two mutants, wouldn’t it make sense to understand their personality traits in order to figure out their characteristics?


    Thinking about it that way, it didn’t seem like the mutants got rid of their desires. Instead, it seemed more like they developed a craving for a specific desire.


    They probably couldn’t recognize who had simr personality traits as themselves, as they couldn''tmunicate.


    I wondered why this was the reason for them giving up.


    Perhaps they got sick and tired of filling up their desires with ones that didn’t fit their personality traits.


    ‘Okay, this totally makes sense.’


    It was like a person who stopped going to the movies; they only yed romance movies, while the person wanted to watch a mystery.


    The stage-one mutants that we kept under control by feeding them zombies on a regr basis gradually lost their viciousness over time. It was as though they were getting sick and tired of watching movies that weren’t their type, or having dreams that didn’t fit their personality traits.


    None of the six stage-one mutants I currently had looked away when I looked at them. This meant that all satisfied the conditions to be stage-two mutants.


    ‘There''s no way…’


    I wondered if these mutants that couldn’t talk didn’t look away from me, not because they were soulless zombies still in cocoons, but because they wanted me to figure out their desires and personality traits. I couldn’t help but wonder if they were waiting for me to discover their overriding personality trait and give them appropriate orders.


    It wasn’t entirely wrong to think of these zombies as being in cocoons, with nothing inside them, but these stage-one mutants had the ability to learn.


    The ability to learn was a part of rational thought. Now, this meant that the zombies themselves had the ability to figure out their personality traits on their own.


    Everything up to this point was pure spection, but my numerous failures had taught me one thing.


    ‘I just need to test it out.’


    Just thinking about what could happen wouldn’t lead me anywhere. I actually had to put them into action. The phrase ‘actions speak louder than words’ was what I needed to hear.


    I also realized that whatever the Seongsu-dong leader said about them wasn’t the answer, since he wasn’t sure about stage-two mutants himself.


    I suddenly felt like I was a student again, preparing to answer questions in an examination. But before I wrote down anything, I knew I had to read the question first.


    ‘Personal taste huh… They’re more demanding than I thought.’


    They vomited blood and died if you didn’t respect their individual preferences.


    I walked over to my mutants, trying to calm my rapidly-beating heart.


    I approached the mutant in the very front. It stared nkly at my face, unmoving.


    I looked at it for a while as I pondered over the situation.


    ‘So how exactly do I figure out its personality trait?’


    As I stared at the mutant, Kim Hyeong-Jun walked up to me.


    ‘What are you doing, ahjussi?’


    ‘I think I figured it out.’


    ‘How to get a mutant to its second stage? How?’


    Kim Hyeong-Jun looked at me, eyes bright with curiosity, asking me to spill it out.


    I told him my theory with an uncertain face because that’s exactly how I felt about my theory at the moment.


    Kim Hyeong-Jun listened carefully to my theory and then continued with a slow nod.


    ‘That seems more than possible. But how do we figure out their personality traits?’


    ‘That’s the part I haven’t figured out.’


    ‘How about we just ask?’


    ‘Ask?’


    As I titled my head, Kim Hyeong-Jun shrugged.


    ‘I mean, ordinary underlings understand themands we give them through our minds.’


    ‘Uh huh.’


    ‘And the mutants follow our orders.’


    ‘Ok, so?’


    ‘Ask them what they want.’


    Kim Hyeong-Jun said it in an extremely casual manner, as if he didn’t know what the big deal was.


    I sighed and tried to formte a retort.


    After thinking about it, though, I figured that his way was the most appropriate way to get what we wanted.


    I’ve been staring at the stage-one mutants so far. I never tried talking to them. I wondered if it was actually going to work.


    I looked at the mutant right in front of me and gave it a shot.


    ‘You… What do you want?’


    The mutant’s upper body started to quiver after it heard my question.


    I grew cautious at the mutant’s unexpected reaction and carefully backed away. Kim Hyeong-Jun, who was standing next to me, also stepped backward with surprise on his face.


    The mutant shook for a while, but then it sagged its head. Its facial expression seemed to suggest that it had given up.


    I looked at Kim Hyeong-Jun. He looked back at me, his expression mirroring mine.


    ‘Ahjussi, what’s going on?’


    “I don’t know either. I was going to ask you.’


    ‘Can trembling… Be a desire??’


    ‘You actually think that makes sense?’


    I clicked my tongue loudly and looked at the mutant again.


    Judging by the futile expression on its face, it seemed like it didn’t know how to exin or express its desire.


    I decided to skip this mutant ande back to it after I tried the other mutants.


    I went ahead and asked the same question to the remaining mutants. One of them showed an unusual reaction.


    It sat down and stood up repeatedly, and also did sit-ups. I tilted my head at it.


    ‘You want to exercise?’


    “KIAAA!!!”


    The mutant let out a monstrous cry that pierced through my eardrums, its eyes swiveling all over the ce.


    I looked at Kim Hyeong-Jin, who chuckled.


    ‘Ahjussi, can exercise be a desire?’


    ‘Uh… Wouldn’t you say it’s possible if its wish was to be fit? In good shape?’


    ‘And you’re telling me someone thinks about being in good shape right before they die?’


    ‘I mean, if someone thought they were bitten by a zombie because their body was weak, I’d say it’s more than possible.’


    ‘Hmm… Okay. Let me ask my mutants.’


    My underlings and Kim Hyeong-Jun’s underlings were about one hundred meters apart.


    We kept them apart for safety reasons, just in case they got into a fight if they were all clustered up together. It wasn’t worth the risk.


    Kim Hyeong-Jun ran to his mutant underlings and looked at them. It then seemed like he was asking them all sorts of questions.


    I observed them from a distance.


    His mutants’ reactions weren’t that different from mine.


    Kim Hyeong-Jun’s mutants also shook their upper bodies or repeated iprehensible actions. One of his mutants showed unusual behavior.


    The mutant sat on the floor with its long legs folded, holding the other zombies around it in its arms.


    After witnessing this, I rubbed my chin and thought about what I’d seen.


    ‘Does it want to hug other zombies?’


    I wondered what its behavior meant. I couldn’t understand why it was holding other zombies in its arms. Kim Hyeong-Jun looked at me from where he was. He didn’t seem to know what was going on either.


    ‘Ahjussi, can you hear me?’


    ‘Yup. I can hear you pretty clearly when you look into my eyes, even though we’re far apart.’


    ‘What do you think this means?’


    ‘Isn’t it like maternal love? Or paternal love? Something along those lines? Or… Does it like being with others? Since the Seongsu-dong leader also wanted a sense of belonging.’


    ‘Are you saying it has the same desire as the Seongsu-dong leader? Then why did this one turn into a mutant, while he turned into a zombie with glowing red eyes?’


    ‘He probably broke the ss wall, but this one probably failed to do so.’


    ‘Oh… Gotcha.’


    Kim Hyeong-Jun scratched his forehead and seemed to agree with what I was saying. He sighed.


    ‘This is… Harder than I expected. It feels like ying charades, back at one of my retreats in college.’


    I burst intoughter at Kim Hyeong-Jun’s joke. It kind of reminded me of my college days as well. I remembered going on retreats and ying all sorts of drinking games as we drank the nights away.


    Back then, a TV show that aired on one of the channels made a big impact on the college retreat culture for college students. One of the games they yed on the show was charades. It was a game where one person had to act out the meaning of a word or phrase, while everyone else had to guess what the word or phrase was.


    Kim Hyeong-Jun scratched his head and looked at another mutant. I watched him with a faint smile.


    After a moment, the mutant next to Kim Hyeong-Jun started doing sit-ups. My jaw dropped to the floor.


    I dashed over to Kim Hyeong-Jun.


    Kim Hyeong-Jun’s eyes darted back and forth between the mutant and me, his face full of surprise.


    ‘Wasn’t… Wasn’t this what your mutant was doing earlier?’


    ‘Yeah.’


    I looked closely at Kim Hyeong-Jun''s mutant.


    The purple stage-one mutant finished its sit-up routine and was looking at us serenely.


    I told Kim Hyeong-Jun and his mutant to wait a moment, and quickly went to retrieve my mutant that had performed the sit-ups and sit-to-stand exercises earlier.


    I looked at my mutant and gave it an order.


    ‘Show me again what you did earlier.’


    My mutant rolled its countless eyes, then did sit-to-stand exercise followed by sit-ups again.


    “KIAAA!!!”


    Kim Hyeong-Jun’s mutant let out a howl and came rushing toward my mutant. It all happened in a sh. We both looked at our mutants, eyes wide at the unexpected development.


    Before we even knew it, the two beasts seemed to be ovee with madness and began biting each other viciously.


    ‘Stop, stop!’


    ‘Stop!’


    But the mutants did not listen to us. Their movements weren’t ordinary. They were biting each other fiercely, and it seemed like they didn’t n to stop until one of them was dead.


    “KIAAA!!!”


    “KIA, KIA!!!”


    We stood there like statues, observing the carnage, as though time had stopped for us.


    They seemed like two enormous, vicious dogs tearing at each other. It was impossible to stop fierce dogs from fighting without a leash. I knew that we would get hurt while trying to stop their fight, unless we stopped them with the thought of killing them.


    After a moment, the most unbelievable thought crossed my mind.


    Just as Kim Hyeong-Jun was about to dive in to stop their fight, I chimed in.


    ‘Just leave them for now.’


    ‘Are you nuts, ahjussi? One of them’s going to die if we don’t do something!’


    ‘That’s how it has to be.’


    ‘What?’


    Kim Hyeong-Jun frowned, at a loss as to what to do. I swallowed, then continued.


    ‘This might be the way they evolve. Once they realize that another zombie possesses the same desire, the only way to grow into a stage-two mutant is to get rid of the other and be the sole survivor.’


    Kim Hyeong-Jun took a moment to realize what I meant, then bit his lips and took a step back.


    Their battle started to get even more intense.


    Because they had the ability to learn, they began to understand each others’ patterns, and their strategies changed ordingly.