---------------
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: ‌‌valirscans.org
---------------

A Corporate Slave Becomes a Villainous Nuisance in a Zombie Apocalypse
Episode 58
When a person dies, livor mortis ‌‌‌sets in on their skin. Discoloration occurs, decay progresses, ‌‌‌and flies drawn by the stench lay their eggs upon the corpse.
Yet this person...
"She looks far ‌‌‌too pristine. Like someone merely sleeping."
"Could the power of the God of Light be at work here?"
In the meantime, Tangerine returned from her reconnaissance and reported.
"There's a fork in the path ahead!"
"Finally, a branching path appears."
"Did you sense any indication that the two paths converge further ahead?"
"There was none!"
"Then only one of them must be the correct path, surely?"
"If we choose the wrong one..."
"We die. Just like those who touched the wrong handholds."
"Then it seems that corpse truly holds the answer."
I was told to turn away from the woman who took her own life.
If I simply ignore her and pass by, the trap won't activate—is that how it works?
No matter how much I dwell on it, something feels deeply wrong.
'Is this not the Divine Maze but the Maze of the Conscienceless? Can only those devoid of compassion—true sociopaths—pass through?'
"Tangerine."
I called out to Tangerine, who was drinking water.
"Yes, my lady?"
Tangerine, who had just tossed the last of the jelly into her mouth, leaned her body toward ‌‌‌me.
Praha, standing beside her with an unreadable expression, did the same.
Four gleaming eyes fixed upon me with earnest attention.
I felt a slight embarrassment creep in.
'I hadn't ‌‌expected to command such focus.'
"Speak, my lady."
"It's nothing major."
"Still, ‌‌I would hear it." ‌‌‌
"Well..."
To think they listen to me with such concentration. It's oddly ‌‌‌moving.
If my vice-captain back in Korea had heeded even half as much as Praha does, my frustration would have been cut in half.
The one who got promoted fastest among my peers—my words fell on deaf ears, yet she hung on every word of my male colleague ‌who'd been passed over for advancement.
That's why you two couldn't work together as a pair.
Feeling both irritation and embarrassment ‌‌simultaneously, I posed my question.
"What exactly was written on the wall as the warning?"
"Exactly as I interpreted it! It said to turn away from the woman who took her own life, either by her own hand or by her own strength!"
"By her own strength?"
"Yes!"
Hmm.
I approached ‌‌‌‌the suspended woman.
I stopped at a distance where I could reach the corpse's feet if I stretched out my arm.
"...."
How often does ‌one ‌‌‌encounter an actual human corpse in ‌‌‌reality?
I'd only seen them occasionally in films or dramas.
Yet scenarios like this appeared frequently in ‌‌detective stories.
The scene where an apparently clear-cut suicide is revealed to be murder.
'A sort of cliché.'
I reached my conclusion.
"I don't believe this woman took her own life."
Praha spoke up.
"May I ask your reasoning?"
"There's no foothold beneath her."
"...!"
"You're right!"
To hang oneself, one needs a platform to stand on—something to climb up from.
A chair, a box, anything.
You step onto it, loop the rope around your neck, then kick away the platform so your body suspends in the ‌‌‌air.
"Once they're dead, the body can't clean up after itself...."
"There should be a foothold here somewhere."
"Exactly. If that woman chose death by her ‌‌‌own hand, there must be something nearby—even a broken piece of wood would suffice."
As you can see, this area is far too clean, isn't it?
"I believe we ‌‌‌cannot ignore this person. Because she didn't take her own life."
Though I'd argue we shouldn't ignore someone even if they had taken their own life, but let's discuss that later.
"Then what should we do?"
"We'll bring her down."
At my words, Praha stepped forward.
He spread a blanket across the floor ‌‌‌beneath the corpse.
I fired the familiar iron arrow at the ceiling, the rope snapped cleanly, and the body fell.
"Up close, she looks even more like she's just sleeping...."
"It's tragic."
After taking sufficient precautions in case this corpse might awaken like a zombie, I untied the rope from around her neck.
"For a rope, it's ‌‌remarkably thin."
"But it's incredibly sturdy! And quite long!"
Tangerine, who had wrapped the rope around her hand, grinned widely and secured it. ‌
"A rope this light yet strong enough to support a person's ‌‌‌weight is rare! And it takes up so little space!"
At least someone found happiness in this.
"Yujein, could you offer a prayer for this person?"
"Of course!"
Yujein, who appeared delighted to have a task at hand, quickly clasped her hands together and closed her eyes.
She sprinkled a bit of wine over the corpse.
(Praha: Cyprus, did you bring wine all the way here?
Cyprus: This isn't ordinary wine! It's Southern Region wine!)
"Thus...."
As ‌Yujein recited a prayer and infused sacred power into the corpse's forehead, the mouth—which had been clenched shut, something none of ‌‌us dared to pry open (which was strange in itself; why would a dead body keep its mouth closed?)—fell open.
"There's something inside!"
Cyprus quickly stepped forward, worried I might reach out from where I stood ‌‌near the corpse's head.
"I'll handle it."
"Be careful. It could be dangerous."
"It feels good to hear that from someone wearing a clock on their palm."
This bastard.
Cyprus pressed both cheeks of the corpse to open the jaw, then extracted a tightly rolled parchment from inside.
"Ugh."
Yujein covered her mouth as an endless length of paper continued to emerge from inside.
It certainly wasn't a pleasant sight.
"Be careful. Don't tear it."
"Done. Let me see... it's a map."
What had been inside the corpse's mouth was a map of this ‌‌labyrinth.
"So that's why this place is called a labyrinth."
From the Cavern where we currently stood, the subsequent paths were extraordinarily complex. ‌
First, it branched into two paths as Tangerine had seen, then split into three paths, then five, then eight....
"Is this physically possible?"
"It must be because divine power is at work in this space."
At each fork, there was only one correct path.
The wrong ‌‌‌paths each bore symbols of fire, blades, serpents, or skulls.
"Does it mean your entire body catches fire ‌‌if you take the wrong path?"
"That's not all. Look at the back here."
"What is this!"
"Does it mean there's an underground level to the labyrinth?"
"The floor we're on is the First Floor, and it looks like there's another level below!"
"We haven't found any stairs leading down."
Cyprus spoke, rubbing his brow.
"There must have been many people who died in this labyrinth, yet we found no skulls or abandoned baggage on the way ‌‌‌‌here."
"Then...."
"Could the underground level be a ‌‌tomb where the bodies of those who failed are discarded?"
"Ugh."
A chill ran down my spine.
After carefully examining the map front and back, I turned my gaze toward the corpse lying before us.
After carefully examining the map from front to back, he turned his gaze ‌‌toward the corpse lying on the ground.
"I don't know how this person died, but it certainly wasn't suicide." ‌‌
"At this point, we'll never find the culprit..." ‌‌‌‌‌
Honestly, isn't the culprit obvious?
The master of this maze must be the one responsible.
Using a corpse as a puzzle for the maze—what deplorable taste.
I wanted to say he wasn't the God of Light but a demon instead, yet I ‌‌‌‌held ‌‌my tongue because the priestess ‌‌Yujein stood beside me.
"Should we keep covering her with the cloth?"
"But if this maze is restored after we escape, this woman will have to repeat the same ordeal ‌again." ‌
"Still, she'll at least have some rest for a while."
Everyone agreed with that assessment. ‌
After collecting the body, we made our way to the fork in the path that Tangerine had spotted earlier.
"It's this way!"
"Your Majesty, what does the map say?"
"It indicates we should take ‌‌the left path here."
"Just to be safe, let's test the right path too."
Cyprus borrowed an arrow from me and affixed a piece of leftover bread from yesterday to the arrowhead.
Without even nocking it, he hurled the arrow down the right passage ‌like a spear.
Then.
Sizzle!
A green liquid cascaded from the ceiling of the right path, dissolving the arrow.
"...."
"...."
"We didn't venture into the fork itself, and thank ‌‌‌‌goodness we didn't!"
Tangerine clutched her chest in relief.
"If we hadn't found that map, we'd be in serious trouble."
"I told you we should ‌‌‌have brought the knights of Prome."
"Tangerine."
"I'm joking, just joking."
In any case, thanks to the map left behind by the corpse, we navigated the subsequent forks without much difficulty.
"The difficulty level certainly isn't so ‌‌‌brutal that it would drive us mad."
"At this rate, we should be able to find the sacred artifact and escape quite quickly."
The most challenging aspect of this maze is probably the heat, ‌after all.
Oh, and the insects too.
"Kyaaah!"
"Is it a bat?!"
"It's a moth!"
What kind of moth grows this enormous!
I swung my bag to drive away the massive moth that lunged toward Yujein.
Then another one came at my face, which Praha chased off.
"Why are these moths so fearless?!"
"If I had a body that size, I doubt anything would catch my eye either!"
"I think I just made eye ‌contact with that moth..."
Surely not. That moth can't see anything.
Drained of all vitality, I let my shoulders sag.
As I glared at Praha, who had turned away after watching me intently, I caught the ‌‌‌faint sound of him suppressing a laugh. ‌‌
Yujein cried out.
"I'm sensing divine power over there!"
"Praha, what does the map say? Is this the end of the maze?"
"Not quite. We still have quite a ways to go." ‌‌‌
"Let's check it out anyway!"
Naturally, our pace quickened.
This time, we entered a rectangular chamber.
The ceiling soared to a height incomparable to any cavern we'd traversed thus far.
Light poured in from above.
Directly beneath that light stood an ‌enormous boulder.
Embedded in that boulder was the sacred artifact.
Even I, devoid of divine power, recognized it instantly.
That was the sacred artifact.
True to its name as the 'sacred artifact of the God of Light,' it gleamed with a pale blue luster, elongated and shimmering in silvery-blue... ‌
'A magical girl's wand?'
Ding.
"The sacred artifact ‌‌has wing decorations on it?"
"There's a heart embedded in it too. It must be a jewel." ‌‌‌
'It would suit Yujein, but what kind of god's ‌‌sacred artifact looks like this.'
Like some cheap trinket ‌‌‌you'd find at a dollar store.
'I always thought that when people spoke of a "god," they meant a supreme being beyond human comprehension.'
Yet here they are, wagering human lives.
And now a magical wand?
It's rather anticlimactic.
But perhaps only I harbored ‌‌such thoughts—my companions wore serious expressions.
Yujein turned back to us.
"Should I go pull it out?"
"Let's go together."
We rushed toward the boulder in a ‌‌cluster.
Up close, the sacred artifact looked even more like a magical wand, surrounded by an ethereal aura.
"Since we don't know what will happen when we pull it out, it would be wise to protect Yujein."
Following my suggestion, my companions drew their weapons and nodded in agreement.
"Yujein."
"Y-yes!"
Receiving our signal, Yujein nodded with a solemn expression.
"How much time remains on the hourglass, my lady?"
"Quite a bit still."
About half, perhaps?
At this rate, I could extract the sacred artifact, find an exit, and escape with time to spare.
'So it was all theater—a false time limit to instill fear. Easy mode, essentially.'
"Ugh!"
Without missing a beat, Praha swatted away the enormous moth that had been descending toward my head, striking it with the back of his ‌‌‌hand.
The moth, struck hard enough to send it reeling through the air, collided with the torch Tangerine was holding and burst into flames with a whoosh.
"...."
"...."
"Of all times to invite bad omens...."
"Let's grab the artifact and get out of here."
"Yes!"
Yujein, her lips pressed firmly together, seized the sacred artifact with both hands.
Her hands began to glow faintly.
Divine power flowed through her palms and into the ‌‌‌artifact.
Crack.
The stone split apart.
Effortlessly.
Yujein lifted the sacred artifact high, triumphant.
"We did it!"
A radiant smile bloomed across Yujein's face, dispelling the gloom that had shadowed it moments before.
In that instant.
The blue aura that had permeated the entire labyrinth vanished all at once.
"...What?"
"The divine blessing...."
The sacred power filling the labyrinth had dissipated.
And simultaneously, black lines materialized in the air.
I know what that is. ‌‌‌
[Ancient Maze: Chamber of Sacred Artifact]
- Yusara, ‌‌‌Praha, Cyprus, Yujein, Tangerine (Survived)

---------------
Brought to you by ‌‌‌‌Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
---------------