Breathing Life into Real Dolls

1.

Ddddding—

The loud fire alarm sounded.

Whoosh—! Sssss—

The sound of sprinklers spewing water, the sound of it hitting the floor.

Coupled with extreme darkness where you couldn’t see even an inch ahead.

All the ability users inside D-Mart were thoroughly isolated.

The bald man who was waking up the other ability users on the second floor was no different.

“Damn it, what the hell is going on. Hey—! Can someone please answer—!”

Responses came from various directions to the bald man’s shout.

“Uh, here! I’m here!”

“What on earth is going on right now!”

Three men pinpointed each other’s location through their voices.

Despite the loud alarm and water sound, they could hear each other if they shouted loudly.

“You guys keep shouting! Let’s gather and talk!”

At the bald man’s suggestion, one person started to shout.

“Aaaaaah! Here! Aaaaaaaaaah!”

“Uh, uh! Good! I’m coming!”

“Huh, damn. This is funny. Keep going!”

While one person kept shouting, the other two were approaching the source of the sound.

“Aaaaaah! Here! Aaaaaah, aaaargh—! Choke……”

The man who was shouting suddenly became quiet.

“Damn it, I was almost there. Why did you suddenly go quiet!”

“What are you doing, idiot! Let’s at least gather together first!”

The two men who were approaching gathered until they could hear each other’s voices right in front of them.

They couldn’t even see each other right in front of them, so they reached out and felt for each other.

“Ah, damn. Stop groping and turn on a light first. You’re Sanghun, right? You have a lighter since you smoke, don’t you?”

“Ah, right. I forgot.”

“Ah, right. This crazy situation. You’re such a dumbass! But what keeps getting in the way of my feet since a while ago?”

“Where, where… Here it is. Should I turn on the fire?”

The man called Sanghun enveloped the flame with his hand and lit his lighter.

Pong-

The two could finally see each other. It was the bald man and Sanghun.

The bald man grinned as he looked at Sanghun.

“Damn, I can finally see something now. Hey. What are you looking at like that?”

“…Huh!”

Sanghun was looking down at his feet with a horrified expression.

The bald man’s gaze naturally followed downward.

There lay the body of the man who had been shouting in the dark earlier. His neck was half sliced, and the blood spread in the water and pooled on the floor like paint.

“…!”

Stumble.

The bald man took a step back reflexively. The identity of the something that had been tripping him up since before was this very body.

“Hey, Sanghun…!”

He quickly tried to tell Sanghun to use his ability, but a blade was already protruding from Sanghun’s throat.

“…Choke!”

Fzzt.

The blade was pulled out, and frothy blood bubbled up from the hole in Sanghun’s throat.

An unidentified man stood behind Sanghun. He was an assassin who had already killed two ability users here. No, perhaps he had killed more than that.

The assassin was dressed from head to toe in a black stealth suit and was wearing night vision goggles.

“That bastard…!”

The bald man quickly tried to use his ability and reached out to catch the assassin.

His ability was ironization. It was the ability to make his whole body as hard as iron.

When he used this ability, no matter how much a zombie bit him, his skin would not get a scratch.

Once used, there was nothing to fear, an overpowered ability that was in the E-grade.

Except for ability users like Choi Cheolnam, who radiated a flame that could melt even iron, the bald man was confident he could defeat anyone.

“Come here—!”

Contrary to his spirited yell, he failed to catch the assassin. The man quickly retreated and disappeared into the darkness.

Thud-

The lighter held in the hand of the deceased Sanghun fell to the floor as he collapsed.

The lighter went out immediately because the sprinkler water had pooled on the floor.

The dreadful darkness returned.

The bald man lowered his stance to prepare for the inevitable attack and kept a lookout all around him.

“….”

Ssshh-

The assassin’s blade came flying out of the darkness.

“…!”

Clang-!

The bald man couldn’t react. The blade was aimed precisely at his carotid artery, but his skin, having undergone ironization, did not get punctured.

Then, a voice came from the darkness.

“…An ironization ability, I see.”

The bald man flinched for a moment, then responded.

“Seems like you’ve heard some rumors, kiddo. It’s an E-grade ability. Don’t expect to die comfortably if you’re caught by me. I’ll tear you apart.”

He tried to sound relaxed, but inside, he was thinking differently.

‘Damn. How did he know? Were there other ironization ability users besides me? Does he… know my weakness too?’

The weakness of ironization was that the duration was less than 3 minutes.

In other words, he needed to conclude the fight within 3 minutes. Once the ironization wore off, he would become a powerless ordinary person. But he couldn’t attack the assassin because he couldn’t see anything.

All the bald man could do was bluff outwardly and panic internally.

‘Please. Please just give up and go…!’

Contrary to his hope, the assassin gave a surprising response.

“Serena, twist his neck.”

“Yes.”

The answer came from right behind him. It was a woman’s voice.

“!?”

Before the bald man could react to anything, the woman was already reaching out her hand.

“What, what the…!”

His head and shoulders were grabbed by the woman behind him. He tried to shake her off, but her grip was so powerful that he felt as if he was locked in a steel vice.

The woman proceeded to twist the bald man’s neck.

“Wai-, stah-haa…!”

Squeeeeee-

A sound like a bundle of steel being forcibly twisted began to ring from the neck of the bald man, who was maintaining his ironization.

‘This is unbelievable…!’

He couldn’t believe the current situation. He was putting all his strength into his neck to withstand it, but the woman standing behind him was twisting his neck, which was as solid as a lump of iron, with only the strength of her grip and arm.

“No, stop, please, aaaaaahhh———!!”

Squeeeeeeeeak—Snap!

The bald man’s head was twisted a full 180 degrees. The woman let go of his body, now a corpse.

Thud-

“Let’s go, Serena. Next is the third floor.”

“Yes, Master.”

Having dealt with all the ability users on the second floor, Kim Doha and Serena headed towards the passage to the third floor.

2.

Baek Seona’s younger brother, Baek Jihun, was alive.

On the day the world’s genre changed to a zombie apocalypse, Baek Jihun had fled the shelter after confronting Choi Cheolnam, who had revealed his sinister ambitions.

The streets outside the shelter were full of zombies everywhere.

How could he, who had even brought out his parents, have survived?

It was thanks to the female ability users.

Choi Cheolnam had gathered male ability users to form a ruling class in the new world and was planning to use young women as sexual slaves.

Incredibly, before revealing his plan, he had first confiscated people’s mobile phones to control information and communication.

By the time they had fully realized Choi Cheolnam’s plan, their phones had already been taken away.

Therefore, Baek Jihun ran out onto the streets with his parents, several non-ability users who had the courage to follow him out of the shelter, and seven female ability users.

About twenty people hid among numerous nearby apartment buildings, procuring supplies from the supermarket and surviving.

And they were waiting for the perfect opportunity.

The opportunity to kill all the ability users and Choi Cheolnam in the shelter and rescue the people.

That day of action was today.

An eight-member special attack team composed of Baek Jihun himself and seven female ability users.

Seven of them had entered the first floor through the entrance of D-Mart.

And what unfolded before their eyes was an utterly unexpected sight.

“What is this…….”

The fire alarm was ringing loudly. Water poured from the ceiling sprinklers. Lights that wouldn’t turn on, likely due to a power outage.

For some unknown reason, a large fire was burning near the passage to the second floor. Despite the pouring water, the fire did not go out.

“Wha, what do we do……? The others must be moving already……!”

“First, stay calm and go to where the people are to find out what’s going on.”

The seven-member special attack team approached the area where hundreds of people were huddled together without panicking.

And there, Baek Jihun encountered the second completely unexpected event.

He met his sister, Baek Seona, who was supposed to be hiding in the convenience store warehouse.

“Sis, sister……!?”

“Jihun! You were alive! Oh, thank goodness!”

Baek Seona immediately burst into tears.

“Sis. Wait a moment. What’s going on right now? What’s that fire?”

“Oh, this is……”

Baek Jihun heard the whole story from his sister.

From coming out of the convenience store warehouse, to being saved by a couple, to luring and killing Choi Cheolnam and two ability users, to assaulting D-Mart to save the people.

‘Choi Cheolnam, that bastard is already dead……?’

Baek Jihun was bewildered by the suddenly unfolding story, but his mind snapped to attention when he heard the last part.

“What, what? Then this Doha guy is fighting the ability users upstairs right now!?”

“Yeah. There should be a girl named Rena with him too.”

“…… We’re in big trouble.”

Baek Jihun was flustered by the absurdly twisted situation.

Among their group, a total of 8 people were formed into a special attack team to assault D-Mart. And of them, seven had already entered the first floor.

The remaining one, where could they have gone? Considering the uniqueness of their ability, they were acting alone.

They were none other than Shin Jiha, the owner of a D-class assassination ability.

Perhaps Doha and Shin Jiha might end up fighting each other. Neither of them knew of the other’s existence.

“We need to get upstairs quickly! First, we need to put out that fire!”

The life of the person who saved his sister’s life was in danger. Shin Jiha’s ability was especially close to impossible to resist in this darkness.

‘I need to find Shin Jiha before Doha dies……!’

Baek Jihun hastened his movements.

3.

I almost just died.

When I came to my senses, a blade was already close to my throat.

Clang-!

“……!?”

“Master!”

Luckily, Serena managed to deflect the enemy’s blade. It was a moment when I could have left life without knowing what happened.

“I’m, I’m sorry! The surroundings are too noisy, so my reaction was delayed!”

“Calm down, Serena. Focus on the enemy for now.”

I was on high alert, pulling together all my nerves and keeping an eye on my surroundings. And I thought.

‘……Who is it?’

The information about the ability users I obtained from interrogating Park Sangcheol did not include this kind of ability.

Did Park Sangcheol lie to me? No. He wasn’t the kind of person to have that much nerve. And he didn’t seem like he would be good at acting.

‘It’s an unknown character.’

I was an ability user whose overall ability evaluation reached an E+ grade.

I hadn’t even noticed the hint of the blade approaching my throat until that moment.

If Serena hadn’t blocked it, I would definitely have been pierced.

‘Then perhaps…… an ability to conceal one’s presence.’

Having made my judgment, I gestured to Serena. It meant I would try something, and she should prepare for an attack.

And immediately, I tripped over nothing.

Slap-!

“Uh……!?”

Tripping in a place without any obstacles was an obvious trap, even to me. But it was better than doing nothing.

Interestingly enough, the enemy fell for this obvious trap.

Snap- Thump!

Serena caught the blade that was aimed at me. The identity of the hidden enemy was finally revealed.

It was…… a woman.

“Stop!”

“……!”

I stopped Serena, who was about to break the captured enemy’s neck right away.

‘Who is this woman? There couldn’t possibly be a woman among Choi Cheolnam’s ability users…….’

Choi Cheolnam was a guy who exploited young women as sex slaves, using ability users as his ruling class.

It made no sense that a female ability user would join such a Choi Cheolnam.

So, what’s this woman’s identity?

“Huh…….”

The woman captured by Serena whimpered as if imagining the pathetic end of a loser.

Soon, she glared at me with a ferocious look on her face and spoke.

“Heh……, kill me.”

“…….”

Somehow she didn’t feel like she was an enemy.