My Strange Savior - Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Back in rare, where the dragon has awakened, Morrison has been blinking his cloudy eyes for days, immersed in his experiments.

As the zombification progressed, Morrison was unaffected – he could stay awake for days and survive without eating. Other than the mouthwatering at the sight of a person, he felt lighter and more refreshed than before.

Looking at the people trapped in the makeshift bars, Morrison ran his fingers through his nearly bald head in irritation. 

“Damn it. Why isn’t it working?” 

Perhaps sensing Morrison’s low mood, the dragon let out a low cry, curling up.

“Too noisy. Noisy. Too loud!” 

Crunch. The dragon curled its massive body, making whimpering sounds akin to a dog in pain.

Frightened villagers, witnessing Morrison’s convulsions, hastily moved deeper into the prison. When things didn’t go as planned, Morrison’s eyes turned ominously bright. 

“Why isn’t it working… why?”

As the zombification progressed, he felt he was losing control, and the pancreatic cancer showed no signs of improvement. Sensing the bodily changes keenly, Morrison decisively opened the locked prison door.

Even if he opened the door, those ensnared by fear might not even think of escaping. Besides, escaping from here would be nearly impossible, surrounded by eternal snow-capped peaks.

Nearly a dozen people had been captured, but due to Morrison’s repeated experiments, only seven remained now.

Among them were Ray’s parents. 

“You… you, let me out.”

“P-Please… spare us… please, spare us…” 

A man with a sturdier physique than the emaciated Morrison was pleading for mercy, prostrating.

Although his build could easily overpower Morrison with a single blow, the thought had already left his mind due to fear.

A monster straight out of legends. In the face of Morrison, who commanded the dragon-like extension of himself, no one could dare challenge him. 

The man who had been begging, his head nearly buried in the ground, emitted a warm breath. 

“Crrk, crrk.”

He held his breath and slowly raised his head. The dragon’s large red pupils were vertically split. The moment their eyes met, he felt paralyzed, unable to move a finger or even exhale.

“Come out!”

Morrison screamed hysterically and grabbed the prostrating man’s throat, dragging him out. From a body that seemed to consist only of bones, where did such strength come from? He forcibly stifled the screams emerging from the villagers.

“S-Spare… ugh.”

Morrison, coming out with the man, mercilessly tore at his throat.

Blood erupted like a fountain, staining Morrison’s lips with crimson.

The seething head cooled down, and only then did he feel a bit more alive.

Drip, drip.

As the dripping blood filled his mouth, his appetite grew.

‘Appetite… Even though I’m human, seeing a person makes me hungry. Am I truly going insane?’

It wasn’t like this when he first arrived in this strange world. But perhaps due to the acceleration of zombification, the moments of losing his sanity grew longer.

“This damn thing. Damn it.”

Morrison, spewing curses, forcibly pushed the torn flesh into his mouth and kicked the limp man on the floor.

“Is it another failure this time?”

For some reason, the people in this world were not infected by the zombie virus.

Even when he first arrived in this strange place, Morrison thought he had a new opportunity.

Closing his eyes, he felt an overflow of energy throughout his body, and the strangely shaped creatures he encountered seemed to submit themselves willingly.

He felt as if he had become a king.

Immersing himself in freedom, Morrison roamed the mountains, commanding monsters as he pleased.

Controlling the monsters like an extension of himself, Morrison thought his world had opened up.

How far could this power reach?

How much control could he exert over these monsters?

The dragon, which had been dormant due to Morrison’s noisy experiments against the monsters, woke up.

Could he tame this one too?

Unlike other monsters, the dragon didn’t easily submit. However, Morrison subdued the dragon with his blood.

Then things became even smoother.

Riding on the dragon’s back, Morrison swiftly descended from the mountain and headed recklessly towards the first village that caught his eye.

Humans existed there too.

Morrison mercilessly slaughtered people he encountered, staining his body with their blood.

He couldn’t suppress the ferocious madness that made it seem like he had to kill them immediately.

He is the king here.

It wasn’t the Morrison who anxiously wondered when pancreatic cancer would push him into death.

Morrison, who once argued for virus disposal and had his friend thrown into the zombie den, even using his daughter as food, was no more.

There was no need to be cautious about when they would come to capture him.

It truly was Morrison’s world.

As Morrison thoroughly enjoyed the massacre, his rationality gradually awakened.

Why is he doing this?

Is there something different from the zombies?

He spat out the flesh trapped in his mouth. When did something like this end up in his mouth? Morrison looked down at the people begging for their lives.

Is this what he has done?

It was unbelievable. He had never committed such a senseless murder before. 

What on earth was happening? The memories were fragmented and unclear as if something else had taken control. 

Morrison couldn’t accept it. Losing control over himself. It was no different from the dumb zombies.

As Morrison regained his senses, he captured people as he pleased and returned to where the dragon had been.

He had experimented with capturing people and infecting them with the zombie virus, but it had failed repeatedly.

“What the hell is the problem?”

The lifeless bodies strewn about could not provide an answer.

Morrison looked at the blood flowing on the stone floor and licked his lips.

“Damn it, why am I so hungry?”

Where had it gone wrong? Was it from zombifying the dragon? He kept losing control over himself.

Morrison, who desired more than anyone else to become human, fiercely clashed his hardened teeth.

“I can’t stand it! I can’t stand it anymore!”

Aaah!

Morrison screamed and leaped onto the corpse.

Tears streamed from the eyes of the remaining people as they watched Morrison greedily eat like a starving person for the past few days.

Thud.

Morrison, savoring the taste while sucking on his fingers as they entered his mouth, could no longer be seen as the same person.

In the eyes of the onlookers, despair welled up as they saw Morrison hurriedly devouring the body.

‘Ahhh….’

Their silent screams continued, and the hope and expectation that someone would come to rescue them had long been abandoned.

Had he eaten about half of the corpse? Morrison, seeming to regain his senses only now, stood up straight.

“What the hell is the problem… What?”

The thread of patience for the repeating failures seemed to be fraying thin, ready to snap.

According to the words of the people they had captured, this place had a similar structure to Earth in the past. Earth from before technological advancements.

Morrison, who wanted more than anyone to become human and cure diseases, glinted in his eyes.

“That’s what experimentation is.”

Morrison scolded himself with a chillingly bottomless voice.

“They say success comes after repeated failures. It was like that before, and I’ll make it. Just watch.”

Morrison laughed into the void, suddenly collapsing flat on the ground.

“But what if I fail? What’s the use if I become a zombie?”

Morrison, talking to himself as if in a one-man play, had now become eerie.

“Right… It’s because the experiments were insufficient.”

More people… More samples were needed.

Morrison, who had come to a reasonable conclusion about the failures, counted the remaining person’s heads.

“One… Two… Seven…”

He ran his blood-soaked fingers through the heads. The people who had been staring at him in horror were now peeing their pants.

“There are still seven left, right?”

It’s like the glass is half full. His tone was positive as if to say.

“If it’s not enough, I’ll just catch more, right?”

Morrison, now even experiencing mental confusion, laughed and cried, repeating strange actions alone.

“Isn’t that right, Yongyong?”

Approaching the red dragon he affectionately nicknamed, Morrison raised his blood-stained hand.

Petting the dragon’s massive jaw, Morrison leaned his forehead against the dark red scales.

“After all, there’s no experiment without sacrifice.”

Justifying his actions, he turned his gaze to the remaining half of the body, looking around as if in a haze.

“Destiny is on my side.”

Morrison suppressed his raging sanity, relying on unfounded beliefs.

“I will succeed.”

Captivated by the belief that he could return to how things were before, Morrison licked the sticky blood on his palm.

As Morrison licked the blood, staining his mouth area red, the dragon’s eyes opened slightly.

“Why? Would you like some too?”

Creak, creak.

Petting the dragon that was emitting hot breath, Morrison casually lifted the remaining lower body.

As if a zookeeper was feeding an animal, Morrison tossed it and the dragon jumped up, grabbing it in one bite.

The protruding shoe fell to the ground with a thud, and the crunching sound of bones echoed through the cave.

The bodies of the people who had been praying and seeking refuge, plugging their ears, froze.

“Damn it… There’s… there’s no God.”

Knowing he needed to hold onto something and pray to keep his sanity, Morrison stuck out his neck, looking at the dragon enjoying its meal as if it were a pet. He couldn’t stay holed up in this cave forever.

Strange, hazy eyes filled with a desire to become human again watched the snowfall outside the cave.

As he raised the back of his hand, the red blood was caked on.

“Damn.”

Morrison cursed, glaring at the dark red veins.

What was wrong with his experiments? The spread of the virus wasn’t intentional. It was just an instinct to survive.

They also wanted to survive if they were in his situation… Why curse him?

Morrison, unable to understand, shook his head.

This was all Yu Myung-seok’s fault. If he hadn’t insisted on disposal, this wouldn’t have happened.

Or was it because of that daughter of his?

It was all because of those high and mighty, self-important brats.

Infuriating people.

It was inevitable that the person who spread the virus would become famous. He was already dead, but Morrison was alive.

Research to neutralize the zombie virus and utilize its advantages continued in the shelter.

And it was all thanks to this genius brain that he coincidentally discovered a way to enhance ordinary humans into augmented beings.

“They don’t even know how thankful they should be. Ungrateful.”

After creating the first enhanced human, they didn’t even appreciate it. Instead of being grateful, they were begging and eating discarded scraps like beggars underground. 

He turned that woman, who was nothing, into a hero by granting her powers.

He couldn’t believe that he was exposed as the one who spread the virus. It was all because of Yu Gia.

Yu Gia, who had dug up the files that were thought to be discarded, revealed them to the public. With such undeniable evidence, Morrison had no choice but to retreat.

He had increased the dosage of the enhancement drugs to the maximum to treat his pancreatic cancer, but his body showed no signs of improvement. Was his already diseased body beyond recovery?

When it came to the point of injecting the live virus, Morrison had no choice but to flee the shelter. He hadn’t transformed into a combat-oriented physique like the other enhanced individuals, so running away was his only option.

At that moment, Morrison’s teeth clenched at the memory.

Luckily, they seemed to recognize him as one of their own, and they didn’t attack. He continued his experiments while wandering through the ruined city.

However, his body deteriorated as time went on.

But one fortunate fact was that he gained a new power. He wasn’t as physically robust as the enhanced humans, but the progression of his pancreatic cancer had stopped, and he could manipulate zombies at will.

With a bit more time, he could have perfected his experiments.

In the last refuge, he was forced to flee empty-handed due to a loud noise. 

Morrison, hit by an energy shot fired by Yu Gia, had a hole in his shoulder. He healed quickly, but he still felt the lingering sensation of pain and discomfort.

Thinking of Yu Gia, Morrison clenched his fist.