The scavenger woman didn't wait to ask questions. She shrieked, a high, terrified sound, and scrambled backward over the frozen bodies. She dropped the rusted knife and ran into the darkness, screaming about a "headless demon."
Ragnar ignored her. He couldn't hear her over the rushing blood in his ears.
He clutched his throat. His hands were shaking, but not from the cold. He expected to feel a gap. He expected blood.
He remembered the axe coming down—or did he? No, he remembered clutching his chest in his apartment. He remembered the purple lamp and the pain.
But when his fingers touched his neck, there was no wound. There was only a line of intense, searing heat. It felt like a ring of fire circling his throat.
"I… I'm breathing," he rasped. His voice sounded rough, like he had swallowed gravel.
He looked down at his hands. They were pale and covered in dirt, but they were strong. He looked at his hair falling over his eyes. It was long. Much longer than he kept it in Queens.
"Where is this place?" he muttered, his mind still half-stuck in New York. "Did I die? Did no one call an ambulance? Right… there is no way anyone will care enough to find me before my body begins to rot…"
He tried to stand, but his legs were like jelly. They gave out instantly.
He collapsed forward.
His hands didn't hit the ground. They squished into something cold, soft, and wet.
Ragnar looked down. His fingers were buried deep in the chest of a dead man. The corpse's skin was gray and blue, and its mouth was twisted in a silent scream.
For a second, Ragnar just stared.
Then, the smell hit him. It was thick and oily.
"Oh god."
Panic exploded in his chest. He scrambled backward, kicking his legs wildly to get away. He slipped on a frozen arm, tumbled over a pair of stiff legs, and crashed into the snow.
His stomach lurched. He rolled onto his hands and knees and retched, vomiting bitter bile onto the white ground.
"What the fuck!?"
He squeezed his eyes shut to block out the horror, but as he knelt there, wiping his mouth and gasping for air, inside his body, deep in his veins, he felt something stirring.
To Ragnar's mind, it looked like a 3D simulation running on a computer screen.
He could "see" the damage in his neck. The cells there were ruptured, starved of oxygen, and dying. Then energy formed into tiny, glowing structures. They rushed toward the injury like a swarm of bees.
Ragnar watched in his mind as these structures located the dying cells. They latched onto the cell surface receptors. click. Fitting perfectly.
Once attached, they injected a burst of raw power into the cell's core. The dying cells woke up. They began to divide at a terrifying speed.
One healthy cell split into two. Two became four. Four became eight. It was aggressive, rapid regeneration.
Self-replication. Repair. Optimize.
The ring of heat around his neck cooled down. The skin knit together perfectly, leaving only a thin, silver scar.
In this place, where the energy called "Will" flowed through the air, his obsession had taken form.
…
A mile away from the walls, the three men from the Snow Panther Clan had stopped.
Do Hyun suddenly spun around, his heavy boots crunching in the snow. His eyes were wide. "Did you feel that?"
"Feel what?" Mu Gyeol asked, his voice flat. "Hypothermia? Starvation? The overwhelming urge to punch you in the face for dragging me to this dumpster of a town? Because yes, I'm feeling all of that."
"No," Do Hyun said. He didn't rise to the bait. Instead, he slowly unstrapped the heavy Naginata from his back. "The energy. It's back."
Geom Woo, who had been silent as usual, stared back toward the town walls. His thumb pushed his sword just an inch out of its scabbard, the metal clicking softly.
"It is very dense," he whispered. "A Star has descended."
Mu Gyeol opened his mouth to make another joke, but he stopped. The smirk slid off his face. He looked down at his arm; the hairs were standing up.
"Guys… not to scare you, but I think I feel it too," Mu Gyeol muttered, his brow furrowing.
Do Hyun glanced at the lean man beside him. His face turned grim. "If even you can feel it, Mu Gyeol, then there is no mistake. Someone, or something, just awakened a Path."
Mu Gyeol stopped smirking. Awakening a Path usually took years of meditation and training in a high-level Tower Zone. To do it here, in the filth of the outer lands? That was impossible.
"We need to check it out," Geom Woo said quietly.
Mu Gyeol took a deep breath. He gripped his dagger tighter, his confidence returning.
"If it's a monster, we kill it," he said, a greedy light entering his eyes. "And if it's a treasure… ha, well, finders keepers."
"It's coming from the corpse pit," Do Hyun commanded, taking the lead. "Stay close."
They turned around and headed back toward the pile of the dead.
...
Ragnar was still on his knees, staring at his hands. He was shivering, but his mind was racing.
"Cellular regeneration rate is near instantaneous," he muttered, his voice shaking. "Adenosine triphosphate levels must be nuts! The cells are behaving like they're cancerous, but they're healthy cells, bypassing the Hayflick limit? How is the energy being metabolized? Is it atmospheric?"
"What is he babbling about?" a sharp voice cut through the wind.
Ragnar froze. He looked up.
Three men in dark robes stood over him. They formed a triangle, blocking his escape. The moonlight glinted off the blade of a Naginata and the tip of a sword.
Do Hyun stepped forward, the heavy polearm resting on his shoulder. He squinted at Ragnar's face.
"Wait," Do Hyun said, tilting his head. "I know that face. That's the guy from the square. The one who got his head chopped off."
Mu Gyeol scoffed, stepping closer with a dagger in his hand. "So, he's a Walker?" He poked the air with his blade. "He doesn't look very scary for an undead monster. He looks like he's about to cry."
"It doesn't make sense," Do Hyun said, looking confused. "When a dead body comes back to life as a Walker, there is always some Will involved. But it feels rotten. Dark. The energy we felt earlier wasn't like that though; it was pure."
Geom Woo remained silent, but his sharp eyes were locked on the silver scar around Ragnar's neck.
Ragnar scrambled backward, his hands sinking into the snow.
"Who… who are you guys?" Ragnar stammered. "I'm not a zombie! I'm breathing! Look!"
He pointed to the puff of white steam coming from his mouth.
"He speaks the common tongue," Mu Gyeol said, looking disappointed. "But he's definitely the dead guy. Look at the scar." He turned to Do Hyun. "Let's just kill him. If he's a Walker, he's dangerous. And even if he's not, he's a witness. We're not supposed to be in this territory."
"Agreed," Do Hyun grunted. He shifted his grip on the Naginata. "Sorry, stranger. Nothing personal."
"Wait!" Ragnar yelled.
He held his hands up high, palms open. His heart was hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird. He had just died once today. He wasn't going to do it again.
"What are you talking about?" Ragnar shouted. "What is 'Will'? I don't know what that is! I just woke up here!"
The three warriors paused. They exchanged a look.
"He doesn't know what Will is?" Mu Gyeol laughed. "He's an idiot. A complete savage. Definitely waste of time. Let me slit his throat."
Mu Gyeol took a step forward, raising his dagger.
"Hey! Hey, guys, wait a second!" Ragnar screamed, scrambling back until his back hit a frozen corpse. "Let me plead my case! Don't kill me!"
"Give me one reason," Mu Gyeol hissed.
Ragnar's mind went blank. He couldn't fight them. They had weapons and looked like they knew how to use them. He was a chemistry student who got winded walking up three flights of stairs.
Think, Ragnar. Use your head. What do these people need?
He looked at the barren, frozen land. He remembered the starving woman who had tried to rob him.
"I… I might not be good at fighting," Ragnar stammered, tapping his temple with a shaking finger. "But I have a lot up here. I'm smart. I'm a… a scholar."
"We have plenty of scholars," Do Hyun said coldly.
"Not like me!" Ragnar blurted out. "I know about… agriculture! Farming!"
The three men froze. In the Outer Lands, food was more valuable than gold. The soil was dead, and growing things was almost impossible.
"I know a lot about plants," Ragnar lied, his voice trembling. "I know how to make them grow. I know their chemistry."
Please let the plants in this world use photosynthesis, Ragnar prayed silently.