We escorted the survivors to the safe zone before returning to the city of the dead.

-This way, Tower Master,' Ea's voice echoed in my mind. 'I am detecting multiple monster signatures.

'Good work, Ea,' I thought.

This was the place where the boss monster was expected to appear. The entire supermarket was encased in a thick, web-like substance, transforming it into a grotesque, giant cocoon. Seojin knelt, examining the scuff marks and dried fluids on the ground.

"A major battle took place here," he observed, adjusting his glasses. "It seems the party of hunters went inside as well."

"Let's go," I said.

We entered the supermarket and, with Ea guiding us, made our way to the underground parking garage. This level, too, was completely draped in webs and littered with the corpses of spiders the hunters had slain. A few still-living ones stirred at our approach, their legs skittering as they crept closer.

Corpse spiders. Nearly a meter long, they were rank-3 undead monsters, just like the zombies outside. In fact, these creatures were the primary vectors for the zombie virus.

As the spiders scuttled toward us, Bora recoiled in horror. "Ugh! What are you all doing? Quickly, kill them!"

She had no problem fighting zombies, so what was her issue with spiders?

"I will handle this." Seojin stepped forward, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "According to the monster encyclopedia in the Great Library, corpse spiders are forest spiders that were turned undead when demons from the Magic Palace broke free and tainted the land. The proper strategy is to first attack their weak joints to reduce mobility, then flip them over and strike their relatively vulnerable abdomens—"

As he droned on, a corpse spider lunged. Startled, Seojin swung his fist in a purely reflexive motion.

'CRACK!'

With a sound like a melon being smashed by a sledgehammer, a fountain of green fluid erupted from the spider's face. It staggered for a moment before collapsing to the ground. A flustered Seojin quickly snapped one of its leg joints for good measure.

"This is how you deal with them," he finished, as if that had been his plan all along.

'You just beat it to a pulp with brute force, you lunatic,' I thought.

Still, as a rank-3 monster, the corpse spider was already recovering, struggling to rise. As I'd suspected, taking them down with simple physical attacks was inefficient. The proper strategy was, of course…

<Fire Cannon>

A fireball, trailing a tail of black smoke, soared through the air and slammed into the spiders. Engulfed in flames, they thrashed and let out ear-splitting shrieks. Fire was the key to this area.

"Tower Master, they are coming from the left as well," Ea reported.

I turned and launched another Fire Cannon at the spiders rushing me. They collapsed in a heap, reeking of burnt flesh.

[Magic Power has increased by 1.]

Not bad. It wasn't as efficient as herding zombies, but my stats were rising at a decent pace.

"Yusin! They keep coming!" Bora shouted as, drawn by the commotion, corpse spiders began swarming from cracks and crevices all over the garage.

"Split up and engage," I ordered.

"Okay!" Bora chirped.

"Understood," Seojin confirmed.

'Fwoosh!' I conjured fireballs in both hands and hurled them into the main passage where the spiders were thickest, sealing the entrance in a wall of flame.

"Hah!"

Bora was already scattering explosion potions in every direction. They sailed through the air, landing in a perfect circle around her like a ring of landmines. As the corpse spiders charged, she drew a bow from her subspace and took aim at the potions on the ground. Her arrows flew with perfect timing, shattering the vials and detonating them the instant a spider tried to cross the line. It was a clever strategy that directly targeted their vulnerable abdomens.

"Hup!" Seojin roared, having completely abandoned strategy in favor of caving in the face of every spider he could find.

'Crunch! Crack!'

Though I had no idea why he was so obsessed with breaking the legs of the ones he'd already killed.

Taking advantage of the chaos, a few corpse spiders broke off and rushed me. I immediately fired the Fire Cannon I had ready, but they flattened themselves to the ground and dodged it.

'Huh, they dodged?'

-Their threat response to fire is high, resulting in impressive evasion, Ea explained. -I suggest neutralizing their mobility first before finishing them off.

"Alright. In that case…"

<Wind Cutter>

I summoned a spinning blade of wind above my palm and sent it flying. Faster than any fireball, the blade sliced through the spiders' leg joints. With their speed crippled, I laid a new magic circle beneath their soft underbellies.

<Earth Claymore>

'CRUNCH! THWACK!'

The ground erupted into sharp blades, impaling the spiders from below. These were the second-order, four basic elemental magics. I could now cast all of them with ease.

"All hostiles neutralized, Tower Master," Seojin reported, wiping a bit of green goo from his cheek.

"Good." Thanks in large part to Seojin's rampage, our first engagement was an overwhelming victory. "Let's keep going."

We descended deeper into the supermarket. When we reached the third basement level, we found a massive pit at the far end of the garage that opened into a dark cave.

"Ea, this is the Boss Zone, right?" I asked.

-Affirmative. I can feel a powerful, magical energy emanating from this location.

We entered the cavern. It was a maze of passages, but with Ea's guidance, we navigated it easily. The further we went, the more corpse spider bodies we found.

"That hunter really is strong," Bora remarked, examining a dead spider before letting out a heavy sigh. "What if we go through all this trouble and get nothing out of it?"

"Haha! I told you not to worry." I was still brimming with confidence.

-Tower Master.

"What is it?"

-I'm detecting a life sign ahead.

I gave a hand signal to Bora and Seojin. They both nodded, silently preparing for battle. A life sign, here in the Boss Zone? It was most likely the hunters, though it could be another survivor. We quieted our footsteps, moving as stealthily as possible.

"…Hng. Waaaah."

It seemed it was neither. From somewhere in the dark spider den, the sound of a child sniffling reached our ears. A chill ran down my spine—this felt far creepier than any zombie or spider. Swallowing hard, I moved toward the sound. A moment later, we saw its source.

A little girl was crouched inside the cavern, sobbing. Zombies milled around her, forming a protective circle. At first glance, it looked like a perilous situation, but the zombies weren't attacking her—just as the ones outside hadn't attacked us.

Just then, the girl turned her head. Our eyes met.

"…Why are you here?" she asked, her voice small and fragile. "Are you here to hurt us, too?"

Before I could answer, her eyes filled with wariness. "Go away."

'KRIEEEE!'

The zombies closed ranks around her, letting out ferocious cries.

"Not a boss monster," Seojin muttered, cracking his knuckles as he stepped forward. "It seems she's really human."

"There's no way a child like that is a monster," I countered.

"There are many humanoid monsters these days, are there not? Demonkin, for example. In any case, since conversation is failing, I shall demonstrate a more direct approach."

"A direct approach?" Bora snapped, shoving him back. "Just stay put!"

She took the lead. After shooting Seojin a withering glare, she approached the girl, spreading her arms slightly to show she meant no harm. "Hi there."

The girl flinched.

"Where are your mom and dad?" Bora asked gently. "Why are you here all alone?"

When the girl didn't answer, Bora tried another question. "Why are you trying to hurt us?"

"…I'm not trying to hurt you. I'm just trying to scare you," the girl whispered. "Go away."

"You can control these zombies, can't you?" Bora glanced around, then placed her hands on her hips. "And you were the one who saved me when that zombie attacked me from above. Weren't you?"

The girl's eyes widened. Seizing the opening, Bora pressed on. "Thank you for saving me. We're not bad people. We came here to evacuate the townspeople to safety."

"I know," the girl mumbled. "But everyone who comes to our town is a bad person, so I have to chase them away…"

"What? Who told you that?"

The girl fell silent again. Bora paused, lost in thought for a moment, then opened her palm. The first-floor administrator's subspace shimmered into existence, and a small, foil-wrapped snack dropped out.

"Want some?" Bora asked, waving the fish-shaped pastry.

'No way,' I thought. 'She's just a kid, but there's no way you can bribe her with food in a situation like this.'

"Yeah!"

'...Apparently, you can.'

The girl, who had been surrounded by zombies, scurried over and politely held out her hands. "Please!"

She must have been starving. A happy expression spread across her face as she began to munch on the pastry. When Seojin and I approached, she shot us a wary look and quickly turned her back.

"That was resolved more easily than I expected," Seojin remarked.

Bora shot him a glare sharp enough to cut steel. "She's just a kid! This could have been solved with a conversation, so why were you so quick to resort to violence? Some strategist you are!"

"My intention was to converse 'after' subduing the zombies," he retorted coolly. "Seizing the initiative by neutralizing the opponent's assets before entering negotiations is an excellent strategy."

"Strategy, my ass!"

While they bickered, I examined the status window of the girl engrossed in her snack.

Name: Eunsol

Unique Ability: Remote Control

Personal Traits: [Dreamscape Lv.6], [Invention Lv.4], [Potential Lv.1], [Engineering Lv.1]

Main Stats: [Magic Power 32], [Agility 29], [Stamina 15], [Strength 4]

Special Stats: [Dexterity 38], [Creativity 20], [Intelligence 15], [Endurance 11]

Total Stats: [164]

Just as I thought—she was a player. Awakenings usually occurred in one's late teens or adulthood; those who awakened this young were often prodigies. Her stats were already considerable, and the potential of her personal traits was incredible.

'Ea, check if there's a Unique Ability called Remote Control.'

-Understood.

Remote Control… I'd never heard of it. It had to be an extremely rare power. I decided to try talking to her myself.

"Is it good?" I asked, kneeling down.

She beamed at me. "Yeah!"

"How did you end up in such a dangerous place?"

She explained everything, her words clear and precise. She was a resident of the slum here, and this supermarket had been a communal living space for many of them. But one day, the entire building was covered in strange webs, and monstrous spiders appeared. She survived by hiding in a cabinet, but the spiders captured everyone else, wrapping them in webs and dragging them away. To save them, she had used her ability to control the zombies and followed them here.

'Hmm…'

I'd been listening patiently since it was a child's story, but there were more than a few things that didn't add up. I set my suspicions aside for the moment. "So, you're controlling all the zombies here?"

Eunsol tilted her head. "Zombies? Those are our townspeople."

They were, once. I looked at the shambling figures, their eyes vacant, their movements stiff and unnatural.

"I'm sorry, Eunsol."

"Huh?"

"These people are all dead."

The little girl's eyes wavered. "…Dead?"

"Yes. Their bodies are just moving because of some evil magic. It's time to let them rest."

"Yusin!" Bora's tone was a clear warning that I was being too hasty.

But the girl simply said, "Okay, I understand." Her acceptance was strangely matter-of-fact.

We worked quickly. Eunsol used her ability to gather the zombies in one place while Bora covered her eyes. Then, I incinerated them all with a single Fire Cannon.

"Tower Master, what are your plans for the girl?" Seojin asked quietly, joining me as I watched the last of the embers die out.

"We can't just leave her here. We'll take her with us for now."

"Understood."

"And keep an eye on her," I added. "Once I start fighting, I get tunnel vision. I won't be able to pay attention to anything else."

"Keep an eye on her?"

"Yeah. Something's off, don't you think?"

Seojin nodded, his expression grim. He knew exactly what I meant.

* * *

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