Chapter 49: The Independent Guardian, Orochimaru

After drinking the potions, moving along the path had become much easier. Every trace of pain had disappeared from my body, and my muscles were filled with a strength I had never felt before.

With the spiked baseball bat resting against my right shoulder, I walked comfortably across the ice-covered stones and felt as though I had stepped into one of the zombie shows I used to watch in my previous life.

Black armor, a mask that completely covered my face, and a spiked bat on my shoulder...

All I was missing was a leather jacket and a wide smile that pissed people off.

I looked like Negan.

The comparison made me open the System screen and check my stats.

[Noctis Evernight]

[Strength: 13 (+25)]

[Agility: 12 (+25)]

[Endurance: 14 (+25)]

When I saw the +25 beside all three stats, an involuntary giggle escaped my lips.

"Hehehe..."

Remembering the little girl walking behind me, I immediately pulled myself together and cleared my throat while trying to look serious.

"Ahem!"

Cecilia was watching me with suspicion in her blue eyes. The blue tips of her white hair swayed over her shoulders as she walked, and she followed me cheerfully in her two different shoes.

"Sir Guardian, why did you laugh?"

"I didn’t laugh."

"You did."

"I coughed."

"You laughed first, then you coughed."

This child’s observation skills were unnecessarily good.

"Watch where you’re going, little one."

The little girl remained silent for a few steps before speaking again. Her voice was filled with amusement and excitement, as if she had already forgotten that we had nearly died.

"Sir Guardian, where are we going?"

"I’m looking for the Core. We need to find and destroy it so we can go home."

The girl tilted her head slightly.

"Then shouldn’t we be going that way?"

I stopped and turned around.

She was pointing her small finger between the snow-covered trees to the right of the stone path. I had been walking in the exact opposite direction.

"Why do you think we should go that way?"

"Because the Core is over there."

My eyebrows furrowed beneath the mask.

"Can you see it?"

"No."

"Then how do you know?"

The little girl closed her eyes for several seconds. When she opened them again, a faint light moved within them.

"I can feel it in that direction. It’s a little far from here, but it’s definitely there."

My eyes suddenly widened.

"Little one, do you have a Nexus by any chance?!"

"Yes!" she replied excitedly.

Then, as if she had suddenly remembered something important, her excitement faded.

"But I can’t show you."

"Why?"

The little girl lowered her gaze and began scraping at the snow with the tip of her foot.

"My dad told me not to use my Nexus. He said I might hurt someone and that it’s too dangerous because I can’t control it yet."

I wanted to slap myself on the forehead.

Of course there was a chance that the child of a powerful Nexus user would also have a Nexus. It wasn’t guaranteed, but it should have been one of the first possibilities to cross my mind.

I also understood why her necklace contained enhancement potions alongside the healing potions. Her father had given her other options for escaping dangerous situations without using her Nexus.

"I’m not asking you to use your Nexus," I said. "You only need to show me which direction the Core is in."

"We should go this way."

The little girl pointed between the trees again.

Instead of continuing to wander around while cursing the System, I had discovered that I had a real compass beside me.

"Don’t go ahead of me. Show me the direction and follow behind."

"Okay, Sir Guardian!"

I turned in the direction she had shown me and started walking. The stone-paved path soon disappeared between the trees, forcing us to continue across the snow-covered ground.

After walking for around ten minutes, I heard human voices in the distance.

Crying, calls for help, and panicked shouts came from the forest, all blending together.

I lowered the bat from my shoulder and looked at the little girl.

"Stay behind me."

As we moved toward the voices, a large group appeared between the trees.

Around fifteen people, including men, women, elderly people, and several children, had taken shelter beside the wall of a collapsed building. Some were wearing nothing but clothes they had worn at home, while several others were trying to help the injured.

Five shapeless creatures wandered around the group.

None of them had formed perfect human bodies yet. Incomplete faces and pieces of clothing had appeared across parts of their white bodies, while their mouths were wide gashes filled with uneven teeth.

When one of the creatures approached the crowd, the people retreated farther. With the collapsed wall behind them, they had nowhere left to run.

I gripped the spiked bat with both hands.

"Are you going to save them?" the little girl asked excitedly, as though everything happening in front of her was nothing more than a game and I was a cool character she could watch.

I sighed.

"I’ll try."

I planted my foot against the ground and lunged forward.

My body moved much faster than I had expected.

The trees passed on either side of my vision as blurred shadows, and within seconds, I reached the first creature. Although the sudden speed almost made me lose my balance, I still managed to swing the bat.

The spiked end struck the creature directly in the center of its face.

Its head burst apart into white pieces, and all the color drained from its body before it even hit the ground.

I had barely felt the weight of the bat.

"Holy shit, now that’s more like it!"

The second creature opened its mouth and lunged at me. I ducked beneath its attack and struck the side of its knee with the bat, bending its leg in the opposite direction.

As the monster collapsed, I struck its chest with a second blow.

The spiked bat tore through its white torso, sending the creature crashing into the wall, where it went still.

The third creature tried to approach me from behind.

Without turning around, I swung the end of the bat backward and drove it into the creature’s stomach. When I raised the weapon, the creature rose into the air with it, and I shattered its torso against a nearby tree.

The remaining two monsters came at me from different directions.

I extended the shaft of Umbrella’s bat, transforming it into a two-meter spiked staff. After driving one end into the open mouth of the first creature, I struck the second one’s throat with the other end.

I finished the first with black spikes bursting through the inside of its head and killed the other with two consecutive blows.

When the fifth creature collapsed onto the snow, the surroundings fell silent.

My breathing hadn’t even quickened.

I returned the bat to its normal size, rested it against my right shoulder, and turned toward the people I had saved.

My body was covered in bloodstains and pieces of the white creatures. With the black mask hiding my face, the armor covering my entire body, and the spiked bat on my shoulder, I looked less like a Guardian and more like a masked thug who robbed people in dark alleys.

Because of that, no one dared to approach me at first.

The little girl ran out from between the trees and came to my side.

"You were amazing, Sir Guardian!"

Her blue eyes shone as she raised both hands and cheered in admiration.

When the people heard the title she had used, the fear on their faces slowly gave way to relief.

"A Guardian?"

"A Guardian is here!"

"We’re saved..."

"Please help us!"

The people began gathering around me. An injured man approached with the support of his friend, while a middle-aged woman hugged her crying child.

One of them carefully examined my black armor.

"Who are you? Which Guardian unit do you belong to?"

Every eye turned toward me.

Since I had decided not to use my real name, I had no choice but to remain loyal to the ridiculous alias I had chosen.

"Orochimaru."

A strange expression appeared on the man’s face.

"Oro... what?"

"Orochimaru."

"I’ve never heard your name before."

"I’m independent."

The people began looking at one another. The existence of an independent Guardian named Orochimaru who fought with a spiked bat must have seemed strange to them.

Or maybe they thought I was some uselessly weak nobody they had never heard of...

Even so, I had single-handedly killed the five creatures that had been preparing to tear them apart only a few minutes ago. Not knowing who I was wasn’t enough for them to refuse my help.

For better or worse, I was their only chance of surviving.

"How are we going to get out of here?" an old man asked.

"Hmm, let’s see."

I looked over the group.

"First, I need to find and destroy the Core. Until then, if you useless people are coming with me, stay together and keep the children in the middle of the group."

I paused.

"Oh, and if anyone refuses to follow my orders or does something that puts the group in danger..."

I rested the spiked bat against my shoulder and used the coldest, most intimidating voice I could manage.

"Things won’t end well for those tiny brains inside your heads."

The group took several steps back and began trembling. Some of the children clung fearfully to their parents.

Cecilia, however, continued staring at me with admiration shining in her eyes.

At least someone understands how cool I am.

What I had said might have sounded a little psychotic, but it was a necessary precaution. In situations like this, fear was the most effective way to keep people together and obedient.

I didn’t care if I looked like a villain. After all, nothing I did right now would affect my real identity, and once the night was over, the Guardian named Orochimaru would be forgotten as if he had never existed.

It was a little sad that all my hard work would be forgotten, but it was a small price to pay on my path to becoming the great Noctis...

Realizing I was getting sentimental, I gave a small shrug.

One of the men swallowed before asking a question. He clearly hadn’t liked what he had heard, but none of them were in a position to oppose me.

"D-do you know where the Core is?"

My gaze shifted toward the little girl standing beside me.

"Of course!"

When I started moving again, the people hesitated briefly before following me. I now had to protect not only the little girl but at least fifteen other people as well.

The same situation happened several more times along the way.

First, we encountered skeletal creatures that emerged from beneath the snow with their bones exposed. Thanks to the speed provided by the potions, I tore them all apart before they could reach the people.

A while later, we encountered another group of ordinary mimics that had taken the forms of the people they had killed. Some cried, while others pretended to ask for help, but the moment they failed to answer my questions properly, their true identities were exposed.

There were also stronger creatures among them wearing clothes that didn’t belong to this era.

These creatures had copied ancient soldiers, hunters, and armored warriors. They were much faster and more durable than the ordinary ones, but thanks to the additional 25 points in my stats and Umbrella’s constantly changing weapons, none of them gave me as much trouble as the monster with the rusty sword.

I transformed the bat into a long spear, a shield, and sometimes a wide-headed sledgehammer, clearing every creature from our path.

The number of people following us grew after every group we rescued.

Fifteen people soon became twenty-seven, then more than forty. By the time we added several more people from the last group, more than fifty were following behind us.

When I climbed onto a boulder and looked over the crowd, I realized the scale of the situation for the first time.

The Overlap appeared to cover only the park and a few nearby buildings. Even so, people out for an evening walk, those passing through the area, and dozens of residents from the surrounding apartment buildings had been trapped inside.

I had found more than fifty people in an area that seemed this small.

I had no idea how many others we still hadn’t encountered.

When I thought about the bloody bodies I had seen earlier, I realized we didn’t have enough time to save everyone. I also didn’t know how long the effects of the potions would last.

I needed to destroy the Core as soon as possible.

I rested the bat against my shoulder as I approached the little girl.

"Little one, how much farther?"

The girl closed her eyes for several seconds, then pointed toward the rocky area ahead of us.

"Close."

"You said the same thing earlier."

"We’re closer now," she replied cheerfully.

"That still doesn’t tell me how far away it is."

"Much closer."

Sighing, I continued toward the rocky terrain. I told the others to stay a short distance behind while the little girl and I moved ahead.

The narrow passage between the rocks gradually sloped upward. After climbing for several minutes, thick branches covered in snow blocked our path.

I shifted the bat to my left hand and pushed the branches apart with both arms.

My mouth fell open when I saw the view ahead.

A wide, deep valley stretched beneath the rocky hill. At its center stood an ancient temple far larger than any of the ruins I had seen so far.

The massive structure, built from black stone, was half-buried beneath the ice and snow. A staircase made up of hundreds of steps rose from the valley floor, while faceless statues on either side guarded the temple’s entrance.

Each of the cracked pillars was thicker than the surrounding trees. Unknown symbols carved across their surfaces gave off a faint purple light.

The purple light spread through the veins of the entire structure and made the stones beneath my feet tremble.

The snow surrounding the temple had been completely disturbed. Countless footprints led toward the structure’s enormous doors, but none appeared to lead back out.

The first thing I felt was relief.

After wandering around for hours without knowing where I was going, I had finally found the place containing the Core.

Then I noticed the size of the temple and the dark silhouettes moving in front of its entrance.

My relief gave way to a heavy sense of unease.

This structure looked nothing like the small crystal chamber I had expected to find. If an entire temple was protecting the Core, something far stronger than any of the creatures I had fought so far could be waiting inside.

More than fifty people behind me were placing their trust in me. I didn’t know when the enhancement potions would wear off, and turning back wouldn’t save anyone.

I tightened both hands around the handle of the spiked bat.

Even though I was afraid, I didn’t take my eyes off the temple.

"This is going to be a long night..."