Walking Daddy

So-Yeon wailed and cried as she held onto the mutant’s hand.

In truth, almost no one truly wanted to die.

However, for all beings, whether human or zombie, death meant eternal peace.

I knew that the mutant leader didn’t want to live on like this.

Regardless. So-Yeon wailed out loud as she held on tightly to the mutant’s hand. I couldn’t help but wonder if any other human being would be so distraught over the death of a zombie.

Unlike adults, who were able to maintain their calm, children were more emotional and less able to regulate their feelings, especially toward a friend or guardian who protected them from dangerous situations.

Now that I thought about it, from their point of view, they would probably feel more comfortable and familiar with the zombies painted in blue as compared to me. After all, these blue zombies were reliable guardians who stood at attention, constantly guarding the shelter from external threats.

They were also heroes who were the first to dash forward to meet any approaching enemies in order to keep the shelter safe.

The children were probably curious about the underlings. They probably want to interact with them and talk to them as well. They would have developed a pent-up curiosity toward these underlings that might have contributed to feelings of intimacy or familiarity.

Perhaps the underlings painted in blue… Perhaps the children saw them as family.

From this perspective, it was not surprising that So-Yeon’s reaction to the zombie’s death was so different from my own. After all, we thought about them differently.

I patted So-Yeon on the shoulder.

“So-Yeon, it’s time to let Auntie Zombie rest.”

“No! No!!!”

So-Yeon shed tears as she hugged the mutant leader’s arm. The mutant leader spoke, its voice barely audible.

"You’re… safe… now…”

“Don\'t go, don\'t go! Don\'t die!”

As tears continued to stream down So-Yeon’s face, the mutant’s lips began to tremble. Then, the mutant asked an unexpected question.

"Do… you... love… mom… my? Mom… mind… love… sun?"

"I love you! I love you! So don’t go! Don’t die!”

So-Yeon wailed out loud, and tears flowed freely down her cheeks. Then, the mutant slowly raised its arm and began stroking her hair. When So-Yeon looked into the mutant\'s face, it smiled gently.

“Mommy… loves… you… too.”

Crack, crack.

With that, its bones began to distort.

I hurriedly pulled So-Yeon back by her waist. I landed on my bottom, holding So-Yeon in my arms.

Lee Jeong-Uk, who had been watching everything, pointed his gun at the mutant leader.

“What is it, So-Yeon’s dad? What’s happening to it? What’s going on?”

My mouth fell open as I looked at the mutant leader.

Its bones began to deform, and in a few moments, it had morphed into a sphere.

I smacked my lips in confusion. Lee Jeong-Uk grabbed my collar and shook me.

“What the hell is going on?! Should I shoot it right now?”

“No, no. Don’t.”

“Then explain what’s happening.”

“Its… It’s evolving.”

"What?"

Lee Jeong-Uk looked at the mutant. Deep furrows creased his brow. The mutant was now an egg, and had gone completely still.

I stared blankly at the mutant leader’s new form, trying to work through the confusion in my mind.

‘So they can evolve without eating the opponent?’

The mutants that had become stage-two mutants so far had evolved by eating another stage-one mutant that shared the same desire as them. By eating the other mutant, they fulfilled their desire and met the conditions to evolve into a stage-two mutant.

However, the mutant in front of me… it hadn’t eaten an opponent. In fact, it hadn’t eaten anything.

I couldn’t figure out why it was becoming a stage-two mutant.

‘No… It can’t be…’

A fresh thought crossed my mind, one I’d never considered before..

Satisfying its desire.

What if it could satisfy its desire without having to eat another zombie?

What if eating another zombie was an optional step, rather than an essential step in fulfilling one\'s desire?

The mutant leader\'s desire was maternal love. I thought about what words a parent would never tire of hearing from their children. I figured it would be their children saying that they loved them.

It seemed like So-Yeon saying ‘I love you’ had stimulated the mutant leader’s desire. With these words, its desire was satisfied, and now it was evolving into a stage-two mutant.

I got up and spoke to Lee Jeong-Uk.

“Evacuate everyone here to the lounge.”

“Why? Does something bad happen when mutants evolve?”

“Because I don’t know what’ll happen. We have to be prepared just in case something happens.”

Lee Jeong-Uk nodded and headed to the living room. He gathered Lee Jeong-Hyuk, Choi Da-Hye, Han Seon-Hui and the children and headed straight to the lounge on the sixteenth floor.

After the last person, Park Gi-Cheol—had left, I bit my nails and observed its transformation.

As a stage-two mutant, it didn\'t pose a threat to me. However, since it was the first mutant I knew of that had satisfied its desire without eating another mutant, I couldn’t let my guard down.

I couldn\'t even predict what form it would transform into.

I kept my eye on the mutant for about fifteen minutes. The wait felt like an eternity. Eventually, the egg began to shake as the mutant inside began to wiggle about. My blue eyes flashed as I accelerated the circulation of my blood.

I planned on killing it right away if I lost my control over it.

Crack, crack!

The stage-two mutant finally broke through the shell and emerged from the egg.

It looked like a human.

Even more surprising, it looked like an ordinary woman.

It seemed like it was in its late thirties to early forties.

However, its pale skin, hollow eyes and bloodless lips, together with its prominent, large and twisted veins, reminded me that the being in front of me was a zombie.

“Do you hear me?”

The stage-two mutant looked around for a moment, then looked me right in the face and nodded.

‘Can you also hear me when I talk like this?’

“Grrr…”

It seemed to be able to hear me, no matter whether I spoke aloud or through telepathy.

I looked at the mutant and spoke up.

“Wait here. And don\'t walk around.”

Even though it was a zombie, it still had a female body. It needed clothes to cover itself.

I went into the master bedroom, picked out some clothes and came back into the living room. I wasn’t sure if they were Choi Da-Hye\'s clothes or Han Seon-Hui\'s clothes, but it probably didn’t matter since the mutant’s body shape was rather similar to theirs.

I ordered the mutant to put on the clothes, and it hesitated. I wondered if it didn’t know how to put the clothes on.

I waited patiently for it, and eventually, the mutant grabbed the t-shirt in front of it and started flipping it around. It seemed like it still remembered how to dress.

It slowly started wearing the clothes I got it, wriggling her arms side to side and furrowing its brow. It seemed like the clothes were too tight for it. But since it was just enough to cover its body, it was time to confirm if it was still under my control.

When I gave it some orders, the mutant followed my commands without the slightest hesitation. Fortunately, she was still subordinate to me.

I now had a stage-two mutant as well.

It looked weak compared to Mood-Swinger when it had been a stage-two mutant, and even less intimidating than a stage-one mutant… But it was still a stage-two mutant.

I looked at it and asked it a question.

“So what exactly is your desire?”

“...”

It stayed silent.

Even when it had been a stage-one mutant, it hadn’t answered me directly. Instead, its entire body had trembled. That hadn’t changed, even though it was now a stage-two mutant.

Since it didn’t give me a definite answer, I had no choice but to assume that maternal love was its desire.

I wondered if it could still fight properly on the battlefield with such a weak-looking body.

I looked at it from head to toe, then asked another question.

“Do you have a name? If you have a name, tell me.”

“...”

"You don’t have one?”

“Ji… Eun.”

“Ji-Eun? Is that your name?”

The mutant nodded. It didn\'t matter whether the mutant’s actual name was Ji-Eun or not. It didn’t matter if it was the name of some main character in a drama that it had enjoyed watching, or the name of its friend that it had admired when it was human.

I had no interest in knowing its actual name. I just thought it’d be nice to be able to call my mutant by some name. I knew that it’d be more effective to call it by a name that it liked, rather than giving it a new name.

I slicked my hair back.

“Follow me,” I said to Ji-Eun. “This is where people live, not where you belong.”

“...”

Ji-Eun nodded slowly and followed behind me. I looked back at Ji-Eun once, then made my way down to the first floor.

* * *

When I went outside, I saw Hwang Ji-Hye and the guards.

Hwang Ji-Hye’s eyes widened when she saw me, and she approached me right away.

“Did you take care of the mutant?”

“Yes, it’s all over for now.”

“Is anyone hurt?”

“I’m not sure. If you could please take the guards and check on how the survivors are doing, that’d be great. You can check in with Lee Jeong-Uk and Park Gi-Cheol. They should be in the lounge on the sixteenth floor as well.”

“Got it.”

Hwang Ji-Hye offered up a sigh of relief and headed to the lobby with the guards. It seemed like she’d been anxious about the survivors even while waiting down here. I could empathize with her, since she’d had no way of telling if the mutant had been taken care of, or whether or not the survivors were safe. It was only natural for the deputy leader to worry.

I turned to Ji-Eun.

“Go to Achasan and wait alongside the other mutants.”

Ji-Eun bowed lightly and headed toward Acahsan. Despite its frail appearance, it had excellent mobility. Unlike Mood-Swinger, who possessed tremendous destructive power, its strength lay in its agility.

As Ji-Eun disappeared from my sight, I leaped onto the rooftop of the tallest building around me and took a look around Gwangjang-dong.

Kim Hyeong-Jun was returning with his mutants after having taken care of the remaining zombies. My underlings were just looking around blankly. It seemed like they were done cleaning up the zombies from Achasan.

We had handled the unexpected zombie wave pretty easily, especially considering the massive number of zombies that had come our way.

Without a stage-three mutant or a black creature, the zombies would never be able to get past our defenses in Gwangjang-dong.

I hopped over the rooftops, heading toward Kim Hyeong-Jun.

“Are you done cleaning up?”

“Yeah…”

I could tell from his face that something was bothering him. It was rather odd to see such an expression on his face, especially after he’d taken care of all the zombies.

"What\'s the matter?" I asked carefully.

"Huh?"

"We’ve dealt with all the zombies, and there are no longer any threats around. So why the long face?”

Kim Hyeong-Jun lowered his gaze but kept his lips shut.

I wondered what secrets he was keeping from me.

I grabbed Kim Hyeong-Jun’s hand out of the blue. The numbing, tingling currents began to travel up through my body. It felt as though a sharp blade was slicing away my flesh.

Kim Hyeong-Jun shook off my hand in annoyance. His blue eyes flashed.

“Ahjussi, are you crazy?” he yelled. “What’s up with this all of a sudden?”

“You good now?”

"Huh?"

“Why do you still look so serious? Whatever’s on your mind, don’t wait for me to take notice. Speak up, you know?”

I chuckled, but he avoided my gaze and clicked his tongue furiously.

I assumed that he would laugh along, but he only frowned and bit his lip.

I wondered if there was something more serious on his mind. After a moment, he sighed.

"I\'m not in the mood to laugh. I’m… I’m a bit confused at the moment.”

“What is it?”

"My… My body feels weird.”

“What do you mean by ‘weird’?”

My brow furrowed instinctively.

Whatever changes he might go through would have a direct impact on the safety of Gwangjang-dong. I thought he’d been offended somehow during his argument with Lee Jeong-Uk, but it seemed like there was something else going on as well.

I looked at him, my expression demanding an explanation from him. Kim Hyeong-Jun scratched his head.

“It’s getting harder for me to control my emotions.”

"What are you talking about?"

“You don’t have problems, do you ahjussi?”

I hadn’t felt any changes.

When I tilted my head, Kim Hyeong-Jun sat down on the floor and gently massaged his temples. I brushed away some dirt and sat down as well.

“Take your time and tell me about it. There’s no one here to say anything to you.”

Kim Hyeong-Jun put his face in his palms and remained silent. Then he looked up at the blue sky and let out a deep sigh. From his expression, it seemed like there was something serious going on.

He wet his lips again, then began to speak.

“I… I feel like the zombie instincts within me are taking over.”

My eyebrows twitched subconsciously at his answer.

His zombie instincts were taking over. Didn’t that mean that he was being overwhelmed by the instincts for hunger and destruction?

I swallowed.

“When did this start happening?” I asked.

"I’m not sure. I\'ve never been like this before... I was speaking to Lee Jeong-Uk earlier today, and it was difficult to control my emotions.”

“How difficult?”

“If there hadn’t been a zombie wave… I might have attacked Mr. Lee Jeong-Uk.”

Him, attack Lee Jeong-Uk?

This wasn’t something I could brush aside. If he did attack Lee Jeong-Uk, he would’ve crossed the line for sure. It wasn’t just killing a human being that was the issue. It would mean the fall of Kim Hyeong-Jun altogether.

And this fall, of course, would result in his transformation into a black creature.

The desire of Mr. Kwak, the black creature whose brain Kim Hyeong-Jun had eaten, was to protect one’s loved ones.

I was speechless.

I couldn’t just ignore this change in him.