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Feeling a sense of unease, I looked outside the store.

Strange figures were popping up like mushrooms in a damp forest.

What on earth is that?

As I blinked, I carefully observed the approaching things.

Their true nature became clear through the large glass window.

“Grrr….”

“Creeek, eek!”

Corpses moving as they dripped sticky, putrid fluid onto the ground.

In this world, they were commonly treated as a lower tier of ghouls—zombies.

And there were not just one or two, but dozens, enough to fill the street.

The overwhelming number was dangerously enough to overwhelm even a seasoned fixer if they lowered their guard.

“Ah! What are those filthy things doing to the street I cleaned so hard!”

But it wasn’t the time for me to focus on that.

The horrifying sight of the clean street I had just scrubbed becoming instantly filthy with the rot of corpses.

In a moment of panic, I used telekinesis to grab the necks of every visible zombie.

With all my strength, I squeezed tightly as if bursting rotten tomatoes.

Crack!

The necks of the zombies filled the street burst simultaneously, and dozens of corpses fell to the ground.

Unlike ghouls, whose skin was almost as tough as rock, requiring several twists to break, zombies made from decayed corpses were soft and squishy when compared to regular humans.

“Huh… What on earth is happening outside? Should I go check it out?”

Gripping my dizzy head from overusing telekinesis, I hurriedly bolted out of the store to grasp the situation.

What I encountered on the street was a scene of utter chaos.

The street was packed with an overwhelming number of zombies and people desperately fleeing from them.

Wondering why there were so many zombies, I realized they must have followed those people out from somewhere inside.

“…Should I just get rid of everything I can see? This is such a nuisance.”

Telekinesis was stronger against multiple weak opponents than against one strong enemy.

Despite having limits in power output, the distances between attacks were short within a given range.

And zombies were merely puppets being controlled by necromancy.

In other words, precise control was not particularly necessary here.

Snap! Crack!

Thus, it took only a few seconds for all the zombies that filled the street to turn into corpses.

“Zombies….”

“W-What’s happening?”

“They’re dead!”

Those who were being attacked by the zombies suddenly expressed confusion as the creatures collapsed helplessly.

Telekinesis left no evidence behind.

From their perspective, it may have looked like the zombies’ necks exploded and they just fell over.

Well, as long as nobody finds out what I did, it shouldn’t matter too much.

Everyone was either resisting the zombies or fleeing in panic, so no one was looking my way.

However, there was one pressing thought on my mind.

So I tuned out the various reactions of the people around me and crouched down to look closely at the bodies of the zombies.

‘This is….’

The sense of unease I felt: the zombies looked oddly strange.

Wouldn’t actual monsters normally drop their innards and guts all over the place, instead of just leaking out suspiciously black goo?

Carefully examining the ripped neck of a zombie, I discovered it was filled not with flesh and bone but rather with a dark, sticky substance.

‘So it really isn’t a real corpse.’

Maybe that’s why there were so many of them.

That suggests someone must have intentionally set fake zombies loose in the Western Labyrinth.

‘The fixers had some information about this… The Blood Night incident. The perpetrator was a vampire named Drakel, right?’

I had a hunch.

This was likely related to the Blood Night incident, led by the vampire Drakel, who had ambitions to turn part of the underworld into a vampire district.

Overwhelming numbers of zombies and a strong ghoul army indiscriminately attacked the residents of the underworld…

Eventually, the protagonists were able to dispatch them decisively.

But something felt off.

Clearly, for the Blood Night incident to happen… there were supposed to be several precursor episodes first.

‘I haven’t even heard of the idol Aisha, who’s a star in Kodria, yet.’

Aisha was the first client encountered by the protagonists after they formed their complete party.

The fact that I hadn’t heard anything about her at all troubled me.

Considering her dramatic rise from an unknown idol to a major star in the story.

Even in the underworld, one would imagine to catch wind of her name at least once.

But for the Blood Night incident to suddenly occur without any news of her?

Something felt like it had deviated from the original flow of the story.

‘Could it be because of me?’

Thinking back to about two months ago.

There had been a vampire who relentlessly chased after me after smelling blood.

I had forgotten about him, he was so weak.

But thinking back, dragging that many ghouls around suggested he was no ordinary vampire.

Even if ghouls were just the level of mook enemies for fixers, they were nightmares for ordinary folks.

So if that vampire and the ghouls were related to Drakel, and if something had messed up their plan…

Then the Blood Night incident, which should have taken longer to unfold, could end up occurring sooner.

‘Hmm… There might be a bit of a problem here.’

In the original story, the vampire Drakel, after piercing the heart of the protagonist Raven, ends up cleanly beheaded by Alice, who I just met.

That would mean if the protagonist’s group got involved, most situations could be resolved.

Zombies and ghouls and vampires all dim out in the face of overwhelming strength.

But what if the protagonists never got the chance to face Drakel in the first place?

‘In the original, the client who lost her family to a vampire became the connection that led to Drakel. But with the timeline moved up now… such connections are highly unlikely to exist.’

If my predictions were correct.

It was highly likely that a fixer of double number caliber would need to step in and stabilize the situation before it calmed down.

While I had no idea where Drakel, the instigator of this mess, was, I had to take down the endless waves of zombies flooding in.

And that wasn’t a particularly good situation.

‘…Who would dare mess up the Western Labyrinth?’

It wasn’t like I felt particularly attached to it, but I had grown fond of the place over the past few weeks.

There were people grateful to me and those who cheered me on as well.

Especially, I couldn’t just stand by if something happened to the baker.

So I decided to make a run for the source of the chaos at the Western Labyrinth.

At least until I realized I was still in my maid outfit without any cloth covering me.

“Ugh… I can’t go like this. I need to find some cloth quickly…”

“Looking for this?”

“…!”

Suddenly, something white was thrown beside me.

Instinctively leaning and catching it, I realized it was the white cloth I often wore.

Turning my head, I saw Greg standing at the shop’s entrance.

He must’ve just seen my appearance and figured out I was on the way to find some cloth.

How did he know?

As I rolled my eyes, surprised that he could see through me, Greg responded casually as if it were obvious.

“You’re worried about what’s happening inside, right? Isn’t that right?”

“…”

“Hmm, hurry back. I’ll clean up the shop while you’re gone.”

As expected of an emotional fixer, his observational skills were impressive.

I had felt it once before, but his powers of observation were downright scary.

Well, if my intentions were communicated without words, then that was a good thing.

I bowed my head slightly in gratitude to Greg and dashed into the alley with the cloth snug in my arms.

And when the number of people dwindled, and I finally saw the zombies again.

I wrapped the cloth around myself, crushed a zombie’s head underfoot, and leaped onto the rooftop.

It was the return of the Ghost, who had been taking a break.

*

Jumping between the darkened rooftops of the Western Labyrinth buildings, I began to grasp the current situation.

‘It’s a total mess. No place in the alley is free of zombies.’

The back alleys, which used to be quiet, were now filled to the brim with zombies.

Well, it was more than filled; it was practically a zombie tsunami.

Just looking down from above made my head spin from the sheer volume.

“D-Damn it! What the hell is this? Where are all these zombies coming from endlessly!?”

“Damn those corpses! Just die already!”

The only saving grace was that bounty hunters were in every alley, targeting me.

It seemed that this absurd quantity of zombies was being controlled to a degree.

They had sufficient skill to protect themselves.

Or perhaps the zombies made from fake corpses were weaker than normal ones.

In any case, thanks to the bounty hunters, civilian casualties were kept to a minimum.

“Ah, this will not do! Let’s get out of here! If we die like this, it’s a stupid death!”

“Ugh… Right! What’s more important than life?”

Of course, bounty hunters weren’t altruistic; they were out to make a quick buck.

Scared by the endless waves of zombies, some bounty hunters were planning to retreat.

What would compel them to put their lives on the line to protect the underworld?

“Hey! I issued a request to the Black Guild! 100 Credits per zombie head!”

“W-100 Credits!”

“Then if I get 100 heads, that’s 10,000 Credits! What are you waiting for? Hurry up and catch them!”

“Wooha! Money! Money!”

But was this zombie crisis a result of the Black Guild’s choice to utilize bounty hunters?

By doling out massive amounts of money, they began normalizing the line of bounty hunters again.

‘How much money does the Black Guild have anyway?’

Bouncing from rooftop to rooftop using telekinesis, I could not help but wear a shocked expression at the reckless financial assault of the Black Guild.

Well, when you’ve got that much money to burn,

It made sense for them to bet a whopping 700,000 Credits on me in my weak state.

To resolve any issue with money is exhilarating from a third-party perspective while driving me nuts from the standpoint of being the one affected.

If the bounty hunters could hold their ground during this, I wouldn’t have to worry too much about zombies.

Feeling somewhat relieved, I blazed a trail through the Western Labyrinth, determined to find the vampire.

Suddenly, my steps stopped near a certain building.

‘Ah….’

Before I could think, I leaped down from the rooftop and landed in front of the building.

When I looked up at the building, my eyes caught the sight of my regular bakery crumbling down.

Not the bakery!

Urgently, I used telekinesis to clear away the debris that had fallen.

Clearing, clearing, clearing.

Once I opened the blocked entrance, I found the baker trapped beneath the rubble.

I dashed over, cleared the debris, and checked his condition.

Fortunately, apart from a bit of blood, it didn’t look like he was seriously injured.

“Ugh… S-someone?”

“…!”

“Did you save me? Thank you….”

The baker, slowly coming around, looked up at me with a weak smile.

He then turned his head, inspecting the chaotic state of his shop, and said, “Haha, I’m sorry… I don’t think I’ll be able to make bread for a while…”

There was a sadness in the baker’s eyes as he apologized.

Was it the sorrow of watching a store full of memories and affection crumble in an instant?

Seeing the baker, who had been so generous to me, forcing down his anguish, ignited a cold fire within my chest.

“…”

“This, this is…!”

I quietly got to my feet.

And without hiding my telekinesis at all, I gathered the fallen debris and created a barricade to prevent zombies from coming through.

The baker watching me looked utterly astonished, his eyes wide.

He likely figured out I was a ghost just from this.

Did he feel let down?

As I silently gazed at the baker, who was straining to cope with the aftereffects of being trapped, he unexpectedly smiled and said, “Heh, I never thought I’d be visited by a ghost… It seems I’ve had quite an extraordinary guest!”

“…”

Swish.

I turned my back on the baker.

Then, while stepping through the gaps in the barricade, I slipped outside the store.

Having shown my powers to someone else felt strangely liberating.

‘Right now, I’m just a ghost… so it shouldn’t matter if I go wild, right?’

For some reason, at this moment, I felt a strong urge to pound the vampire into the ground.