Reborn with A Simulation Coin!

The Senda Territory had fallen swiftly; completely overrun. Baron Senda, his family, and nearly everyone in the region were dead. It was an annihilation no one had seen coming.

"Plague? Monsters?" Harry muttered, his brows furrowed deeply as he listened to the report from his subordinates.

The details were grim and surreal. People dying of a sudden plague, only to rise again and attack the living. It sounded… familiar. Too familiar. A flicker of recognition danced in his mind.

"Resurrected corpses?" Harry mused, rubbing his temples. The scenario sounded like something out of the countless stories from his previous life. Zombies, the undead, monsters clawing their way out of the grave; there were too many to count. This wasn't some far-fetched tale, though. It was happening right here, right now.

His instincts screamed caution. "Have ST prepare the horses," he ordered sharply. "I'm going to see this for myself."

One of his men hesitated. "My lord, are you sure—"

"I said prepare the horses," Harry interrupted, his voice cold and firm. "If this plague spreads, it won't stop at Senda's territory. We need to understand what we're dealing with."

In no time, Harry was ready to leave.

At his side stood Salah, a knight apprentice whose strength rivaled that of the elites. Salah had once served under Reggie, but after Reggie's death, Harry had defeated him in combat and forced him into service. Now, Salah was one of Harry's most capable men.

The team Harry assembled for this expedition was small but formidable. Alongside Salah were nearly twenty knight apprentices, each handpicked for their skill. Individually, they were deadly; together, they were a force that could rival an army of a thousand. The group wasn't large, but they didn't need to be. This wasn't an invasion; it was reconnaissance.

Their journey to Senda's lands was quick, and as they crossed into the territory, the air seemed heavier, colder. It was quiet, unnaturally so.

Harry had visited Senda's lands before, but now they were unrecognizable. Once-thriving villages were abandoned, their buildings left to rot. Fields lay untended, overgrown with weeds, and the roads were eerily empty. There wasn't a single living soul in sight.

"Spread out," Harry ordered, his voice steady but low. "Look for survivors, but stay alert. If these stories are true, we won't have the luxury of mistakes."

Salah and the others scattered, searching through the ruins. Eventually, they found a handful of survivors, ragged and hollow-eyed, clinging to life amid the devastation.

"Dead. They're all dead," one man stammered, his voice trembling with horror. His sunken eyes darted around nervously, as if expecting something to emerge from the shadows. "They climbed out of the graves! They… they weren't human anymore. You can stab them, cut them, and they just keep coming. They don't feel pain; they're not alive, but they're not dead either."

Harry questioned several survivors, but their accounts were disturbingly consistent. The plague was bad enough, but the true nightmare began after death. Corpses returned to life, twisted and monstrous, preying on the living without mercy.

The group pressed on, drawing closer to the estate that once belonged to Baron Senda's family. The tension grew with every step. Even the faintest rustle of leaves set the men on edge, hands resting on the hilts of their swords.

Then, a piercing scream shattered the silence.

Harry's head snapped toward the sound. "Over there!" he barked, drawing his sword and sprinting toward the noise. The others followed close behind.

The scene they came upon was harrowing. In the middle of the forest clearing stood a girl, barely fifteen or sixteen years old. She was rail-thin, her clothes torn and filthy. Her face was frozen in terror, her wide eyes locked on the creature looming before her.

It had once been a man; perhaps even one of Baron Senda's people, but now it was something far worse. Its skin was rotted and ulcerated, with patches of exposed muscle and bone beneath. Blood and filth dripped from its grotesque body, and its hands had transformed into claw-like appendages. Red eyes burned with a primal hunger as it growled low, staring at the girl like prey.

Harry's eyes narrowed. 'A plague that does this…?'

The girl must have been hiding in the mountains for days, surviving off scraps, only to stumble into this nightmare. If they had arrived even moments later, she would have been torn apart.

Harry acted without hesitation. His blade flashed in the dim light, the metallic ring of steel echoing through the air. In one fluid motion, he drove his sword into the creature's chest, pinning it to the ground.

The monster let out an unearthly shriek, thrashing wildly against the blade. Its claws scraped at the dirt, trying desperately to free itself, but the sword held firm. Despite its grotesque strength, it couldn't break free. Harry stepped back, his gaze cold and unflinching as he watched it struggle.

"Still moving," Salah muttered, gripping his own weapon tightly. "How is it still moving?"

"They don't die like normal men," Harry said grimly, his mind racing. He glanced at the girl, who was frozen in shock. "Get her out of here," he ordered.

As one of the men moved to escort the girl to safety, Harry turned his attention back to the monster. He studied it closely, noting every detail, the decay, the unnatural claws, the red eyes that seemed to burn with rage. Whatever this thing was, it was a glimpse into the chaos that had consumed Senda's territory.

"Huh?"

Harry's brow furrowed as he stared down at the monster pinned to the ground, its grotesque, rotting body twitching beneath the blade of his sword. He had expected a much tougher opponent. For something with such a terrifying appearance, it went down far too easily.

He took a step closer, his boots crunching against the dirt. The monster was hideous, no doubt; a patchwork of decaying flesh, exposed bones, and claw-like hands. Its glowing red eyes glared at him with animalistic fury, though its body was now immobilized.

"So, this is the terrifying creature people are so afraid of?" Harry muttered to himself, a hint of disappointment in his tone. "I thought it would at least put up more of a fight."

The truth was becoming clear. While these monsters were certainly horrifying to ordinary folk, their strength was only marginally better than a normal human's. What made them dangerous was something else entirely, their immunity to pain and their sheer resilience to being struck down. Against an unarmed villager or someone wielding nothing more than a kitchen knife, these monsters were unstoppable. But against trained fighters? Against proper weapons? They were far less impressive.

Handing the trembling girl over to Salah, Harry stepped forward, a glint of curiosity in his eyes. "Stay back. I want to see exactly what this thing can do."

With measured precision, he began his "tests." His strikes were calculated, each one meant to probe the creature's abilities. What he discovered was… illuminating.

The supposed "invulnerability" to swords and weapons was not quite what the terrified villagers had described. True, the creature's thick, decaying skin provided some resistance to weak, makeshift weapons. A farmer with a pitchfork or a rusty knife might as well be stabbing at a wall. But against the sharpened steel of a knight apprentice's blade? Against the strength of someone like Harry? The creature's defenses crumbled.

He stabbed its arm, twisted the blade, and watched it slice through the flesh like wet clay. "Not invulnerable, then," he mused, wiping the blood off his blade. "Just tough. Tough enough to fool peasants, at least."

However, its complete lack of pain response was undeniable. No matter how deep Harry's blade cut, the monster didn't flinch. Even as he severed tendons and gouged muscle, it continued to thrash and claw at him with unrelenting determination.

"Well, I suppose that's to be expected," Harry muttered, tilting his head as he observed the creature's body. Its flesh was rotted to the point that nerves likely no longer functioned. Without nerves, there was no pain. "It's not feeling anything because it probably 'can't' feel anything anymore. Makes sense."

What surprised him the most, however, was its supposed immortality or rather, the lack of it. After splitting the creature in half with a heavy swing of his sword, Harry watched as it writhed on the ground, its movements growing weaker and weaker until, eventually, it stopped altogether.

"Immortal, my ass," he scoffed, nudging the corpse with the tip of his boot. "Didn't even need to take its head off. Split the thing in two, and it just… died."

The monster's durability was impressive, yes, but immortality? Hardly. Still, Harry couldn't ignore the implications of these creatures. Even with their weaknesses, they were terrifying enough to overwhelm untrained, poorly armed villagers. In large numbers, they could devastate entire settlements and, as the fall of Senda's territory showed, they already had.

Satisfied with his initial observations, Harry turned to the girl. "You said you've been living in the mountains?"

The girl nodded nervously, clutching the scraps of her tattered clothing. "Y-yes. Since… since the plague. I hid there after the monsters started attacking the villages."

"Do you know where they gather? Where they might be hiding now?"

She hesitated for a moment before nodding again. "I've seen them… in the hills, near the forest's edge. At night, they come down to scavenge. During the day, they hide… I think."

"Good," Harry said with a nod. "You'll guide us. You've survived this long. I trust you know the land better than anyone."

By the end of the day, Harry's team had tracked down several more of the creatures, capturing them for further study. Each one was bound and taken back to his manor, where he planned to dissect and experiment on them to uncover any weaknesses or hidden truths about their nature.

As for Baron Senda's territory, however, Harry made a swift decision: he would abandon it.

The land was too far gone. Between the plague and the monsters, there were almost no survivors left. Even the few who remained might still carry the disease, and the creatures lurking in the hills posed too great a risk for any meaningful settlement.

"Not worth it," Harry muttered to himself as he surveyed the desolation one last time. "Too much trouble for too little gain. Better to focus elsewhere."

And focus he did. Over the following weeks, Harry shifted his ambitions, targeting weaker lords in the neighboring territories. Through a series of calculated strikes, he annexed several small holdings, slowly but steadily expanding his influence.

But his success came with an unsettling discovery.

In each territory he conquered, whispers of similar plagues began to surface. Small outbreaks, strange illnesses, and scattered sightings of creatures that bore an uncanny resemblance to the undead monsters in Senda's lands.

It wasn't long before Harry realized the truth.

This wasn't an isolated incident. The plague was spreading. And with it, something far darker was taking root in the world around him.