My Strange Savior - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Kalion’s eyes filled with disbelief then settled calmly again. What could be her true identity? She had saved his life, but he couldn’t trust her even more.

“If I explain, would you believe me?” 

Gia asked, her hands behind her back as she stared at Kalion. Her clear, ruby-red eyes seemed to pierce through him as if they were precious gems, and Kalion shivered under her gaze.

Gia had eyes filled with life and a strong heart that didn’t break, a stark contrast to the people he had known in that desolate place, living each day without hope. The atmosphere between them was entirely different, and their eye contact lingered longer than it should have in the somber surroundings.

“Well, let’s exchange information one by one.”

Gia said, leaning back and addressing Kalion. 

“Starting with our names. I’m Yu Gia.”

A slow, slender hand was held out in front of him.

“Come on.”

The voice was firm but somehow irresistible, and Kalion’s jaw tightened.

“I’m Kalion Bowers.”

“Great, Kalion. Nice to meet you. Since I saved your life, don’t think too casually of me.”

What does that even mean? Before Kalion could comprehend, she suddenly extended her hand for a handshake.

“Let’s shake hands properly, shall we? Seriously. You may look younger than me, but your actions make you seem like an old man.”

The thought crossed her mind that perhaps she doesn’t need to go back, even though she can’t find any answers while thinking about the commander who must be fuming while looking for her, who has disappeared by now…

She would probably receive a scolding beyond measure. For a while, she would be kept away, unable to participate in the combat unit. Still, she missed him after not seeing him for a week. 

Gia, with her “hmph” and all, put aside thoughts of the commander and scrutinized Kalion’s face in front of her.

He’s handsome. If it were the same world as before, Gia would have read his fortune.

“Age?” 

“Why are you asking such a question…?”

“I’m twenty-five.”

“Ha… I’m twenty-one.”

“You’re young.”

Why is he in this situation? Where was all the vigilance that had sent him scurrying for the knife in the first place? He couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being drawn into this woman’s unpredictable actions.

“Where are you from?”

Finally, it was time for proper questions and answers. Without letting his guard down due to her changed expression, Kalion answered.

“I’m the commander of the Asperon Empire’s Order of Knights.”

“What? Well… That’s… awkward…”

Gia’s face contorted with embarrassment upon hearing the affiliation she hadn’t heard of before.

Among several hypotheses, the most hopeless and futile one came to mind.

Somehow, it seemed to fit, and Gia sighed.

“Damn it.”

Swearing? Kalion stared at Gia’s red lips as if his ears were plugged. Swearing? It was Kalion who became distant, given Gia’s behavior, so different from the young ones he knew.

“This is crazy.”

Gia muttered, wiping her face with her hand, filled with foul words one after another.

Was she trying not to reveal her affiliation? With a serious expression, Gia clenched her jaw while supporting her smooth forehead with her fingers and suddenly burst into a senseless laugh.

“Wow! Seriously! Damn it!”

Is she finally going insane? Kalion, who stared at Gia as she suddenly shouted and cursed, slowly backed away.

Considering her attire and her being in this forest, he realized she might not have been sane to begin with. As he checked the position of the weapons he had examined, Gia’s slender fingers rested on Kalion’s shoulder, looking over her shoulder.

“Haha, I’m not crazy… Or am I?”

Dimensional travel? Parallel worlds? Gia, who had never considered such absurd events happening to her, exhaled heavily.

No, even more absurd things had happened. In her world, just after entering high school, a virus had spread one day – a zombie virus, just like in the movies. People started killing and eating each other, and chaos erupted everywhere.

Overnight, the world she knew had crumbled, leaving only horror behind. The government had collapsed helplessly, and only a tiny fraction of the population survived.

Whether it was luck or misfortune to be among that fraction, she couldn’t say. Perhaps her father’s influence had played a significant role. The origin of all this chaos is traced back to her father.

The virus, born from her father’s experiments as a brilliant genetic biologist, had leaked out, leading to the downfall of the world. She had been oblivious, even when she was a top-priority rescue target for the military. She had simply thought she owed her life to her father.

As Gia had said, at first, no one had given up hope. There had been a vague expectation of developing a cure, but that hope had shattered in an instant. Many people had dedicated themselves to research, and many had died, but progress had been slow, and the population had dwindled.

The extinction of humanity.

Faced with this overarching premise…

The race they were fighting over was nothing. They all came together with one heart and one mind to survive. They built a base underground in the dark and fought fiercely to survive, even with their limited strength. 

As the days went by, the intelligence of the learned zombies increased, and the difference became so great that they could no longer fight.

Now, only death remains. When everyone felt the impending doom and despair, as humanity always did, they forged a path. People began to modify the zombie virus to enhance humans. 

The enhanced humans did not die from most injuries. The virus derived from the zombie virus regenerated cells and could grant them unimaginable strength and speed. And most importantly, they didn’t turn into zombies when bitten.

But they also lost as much as they gained. Within a month, they had to receive periodic half-dose treatments, or they would turn into zombies. It was their most vulnerable weakness. 

Gia was the first test subject of the enhanced human project. Whether she thought she had to contribute now that she was an adult or whether she felt the burden of her father’s actions, who had created the virus, Gia, bearing the stigma of being the daughter of the creator of the virus, didn’t feel like she was alive. 

Why did she make that choice? Looking back, she had thought it was necessary at the time due to the resentment of the adults who had egged on her immature thoughts in her younger days. The adults had essentially handed her over to that pit.

“How long are you going to be a parasite?”

“But it’s what your dad created, right?”

“Somebody has to take responsibility.”

With each step, twenty resentments poured out.

“Alright. I’ll do it.”

There was no opposition, and there was no one to wipe away the tears of the flowing girl. As she lay on the cold operating table, her limbs bound, she trembled in fear as she watched the virus flow toward her. 

Amid extreme pain, with her breath constricted and her limbs contorted, Gia tenaciously survived and became the first enhanced human.

She took the lead in fighting off the zombies. Everyone had hoped for that.

It seemed like Gia had worked harder than ever when she first came to the shelter, oblivious to the kindness of the people she was meeting for the first time. She didn’t hesitate to take on the risky task of extracting research data from the lab where zombies were roaming to help make the cure.

As a result, Gia learned something different from what people knew. The one who created the virus was her father, but her father had strongly advocated for its disposal, warning of the immense disaster it could cause. And someone had leaked it. What was even more astonishing was that the leaker was none other than Dr. Morrison, who had originally established the first base.

To Dr. Morrison, who was in the terminal stages of pancreatic cancer, the virus her father had discovered was a glimmer of hope. It was a zombie virus that could revive dead cells. Therefore, Morrison, who couldn’t bear to give up, secretly stole the virus from her father. 

Fearful of possible side effects, he switched the medicine for the virus with the people who were conducting other clinical trials and administered the virus to them.

He was incredibly selfish. When her father found out and tried to stop Morrison, he locked him in a room with the people who had turned into zombies and sealed the door with his own hands. Morrison, who had started confessing his actions as if he had gone insane, began to show black veins in his blood vessels.

He cried out, asking if it was a crime to want to live, and his eyes, like the zombies outside, started to cloud over, and soon, his rampage followed. It seemed that even administering the enhanced human serum to those already infected couldn’t delay the progression of the disease, as Morrison eventually resorted to directly injecting the live virus.

Dr. Morrison’s body was already in the process of zombification, and he continued experiments under the pretext of creating enhanced humans, ultimately becoming a monstrous state that was neither human nor zombie. She did their best to capture him as he escaped, but time passed relentlessly.

After four years, she finally found a clue to his whereabouts and confronted him, but he was no longer human.

The place was decayed and reeked of a foul odor, but the flesh was regenerating where there had been decay. Gia stared at Morrison, who died and came back repeatedly as if he found his repulsive.

Morrison, confined in a dark place with no proper sunlight, exhibited unexpected abilities. While fleeing, he continued his experiments, gaining the power to control the zombies. Just before she could catch him while mowing down the relentless horde of zombies, Morrison threw a black sphere, causing the steel floor to instantly melt, releasing a noxious smoke.

His voice, which had taunted her that she would never catch him, still seemed to linger in her ears. Without hesitation, she jumped down to tear him apart and end him.

Where Gia had awoken after the confrontation, that was right here.

Explaining this convoluted story to the person in front of them felt overwhelming.

“Kalion? Kal? Hey, sorry, but can I take a swing at you?”

Was she truly mad? Kalion looked at the crazy woman who had just moments ago torn someone apart, now asking if she could hit him as if he were a bug.

You don’t kill or hurt people for no reason. That was Kalion’s creed. But to ask to be hit? To tell someone to hit you? Was she truly insane, or was she using this as a way to reveal her affiliation?

Without realizing that Kalion was giving her a thin-eyed look, Gia abruptly stopped laughing.

“Huh. You’re nuts.”

“Please disclose your affiliation.”

“I won’t tell. Am I an Asperon? What? I’ve never even heard of that empire.”

Is she insane? At the woman’s words about not knowing the empire, Kalion’s face twisted into a fierce scowl.