.

South Korea’s livestock industry mainly focuses on raising cattle, pigs, or chickens. Among these three choices, it was obvious what type of livestock would suit D-Mart.

An animal that didn’t take up much space didn’t eat a lot of feed, could be bred quickly in large numbers, and could even provide delicious eggs.

Chickens.

We flew a distance of about 50km from Seoul to Yangju in one go, and using a map app, we located a decent-sized poultry farm.

The large poultry farms relatively closer to the city center seemed likely to have already been claimed by someone else, so we opted for a rural poultry farm far from the urban area.

Whoosh- Whoosh- Whoosh-

The wing-flapping speed gradually decreased, and our feet lightly touched the ground.

“……”

It was quiet for now.

Even though we had scoped the area from above, it seemed like there were almost no zombies in this low-population countryside.

“Shall we walk in slowly?”

“Let’s go!”

“Yes.”

The rural landscape was bathed in warm sunlight.

It had the feel of an unmanaged ruin due to the lack of human presence, but since no zombies were visible, it also felt like a peaceful world rather than an apocalypse.

After walking a bit, I spotted a chicken walking in the distance. Somehow it had escaped from the poultry farm.

This was good news. There was a higher possibility that there were more living chickens.

The first to react upon seeing the chicken was Serena.

“Wow…!”

She pulled at the sleeve of my shirt with an excited face.

“Ma, Master…! It’s a chicken, a chicken!”

“Ah, yes. It’s a chicken.”

Ciel also spoke, fluttering her wings gently.

“That one has wings too. It’s similar to me.”

…Similar?

“Your wings are much prettier, Ciel.”

“Really? Hee-hee-hee.”

Ciel covered her mouth and laughed cheerfully.

Who could have predicted that this pervert would enjoy being praised?

“Master, Master!”

“Hm?”

“Can I catch that chicken?”

“Yes. Go catch it.”

“Yay—!”

Serena ran off excitedly.

I wondered why she was so excited, but then I realized that Serena and Ciel were seeing a live chicken for the first time in their lives.

Ciel, walking calmly beside me, fixed her gaze on Serena catching the chicken. She seemed interested.

‘Ah…’

Seeing these lovely reactions, I felt a surge of desire to show these two a broader world.

As we traveled together, ate delicious food, and explored mysterious things… Every time, they would be thrilled even by simple things, as if they owned the world.

Just like Serena right now, excited as if she had caught a chicken and discovered treasure.

I made up my mind.

‘Once this world becomes more stable, and there’s no need for me to be at the D-Mart shelter… I should take the Real Dolls on a trip.’

With Ciel’s wings, we could go anywhere.

Being with these lovely women who found joy in merely being by my side, would undoubtedly be an enjoyable journey.

We could even enjoy different kinds of sex in each new place…

At that moment, Serena came running to show me the chicken she had caught.

“Master! Look at this! I caught it!”

Cluck, cluck—

Serena was an adult in body and mind, but at this moment, she felt like a child boasting about her achievement to her parents.

I gently stroked her platinum blonde hair that was shining brightly in the sunlight.

“You did very well, Serena.”“Hee-hee-hee!”

Her face turned red with happiness even from such trivial praise. I felt like giving her a praise sticker.

I should also give her a praise kiss mark on her chest later.

Seeing Serena happily catching the flapping chicken, Ciel also seemed subtly interested in touching it.

“Ciel, you can touch it too.”

“Me too? …Should I?”

At my suggestion, Ciel stepped forward shyly. Then Serena firmly grabbed the chicken’s body and held it out.

Rustle- rustle-

Ciel gently stroked the chicken’s wings and said,

“Hee-hee. The feathers are soft.”

Rustle- rustle-

I gently stroked Ciel’s wings.

“This side feels even softer and more pleasant.”

Ciel turned her head back at my touch and smiled with her eyes.

“I prefer it when you handle me roughly…♡”

“……”

…That was an obvious sexual innuendo.

Ciel’s lower abdomen was still protruding because of the semen she couldn’t fully use up, even with magical flight.

To receive so much in the morning and still try to seduce me… She was a frightening girl.

.

We continued to walk towards the inside of the poultry farm.

Inside the spacious poultry farm, our path led to the building where the chickens were gathered and raised, known as the chicken coop.

As I had found out in advance on the Internet, the chicken coop was a giant one-story container-like temporary building.

Nowadays, there were many cage chicken coops where chickens were kept in very narrow partitions, but the place we had come to was one where they were raised in large quantities inside a container.

After a few minutes, the chicken coop came into view.

But…

Cluck-cluck—

Cluck, cluck-cluck—

Cluck-cluck—

The inside of the chicken coop was chaotic.

How could it be so noisy with just chickens? Do chickens fight among themselves?

“Serena, listen and see if there’s anyone inside.”

“Yes, Master.”

Serena closed her eyes and listened quietly.

With her superhuman physical abilities, her vision and hearing were very sensitive.

“…There is someone. One person. It seems they are trying to catch a chicken.”

I nodded and said,

“Looks like there’s a guest. There’s no need to fight, so let’s hide until they leave.”

“Yes!”

“Yes.”

We hid in the nearby bushes.

The chicken that Serena had caught was left near the coop. We couldn’t hide the chicken’s presence, after all.

We waited for a moment, and then…

A person appeared, holding a chicken in their hand.

“Heh heh heh… Tonight, we’ll have chicken…!”

But something was off.

First, the voice. It wasn’t coming out properly from the throat, but rather it sounded like air leaking out, almost as if the vocal cords had been mostly removed.

The appearance was also suspicious. The individual wore a black hooded sweatshirt and cargo pants, and the visible hands and ankles were tightly wrapped in bandages, so no bare skin was showing.

The wrapped bandages were stained and filthy, as if they had been there for some time, and it seemed like they would give off a foul odor if approached.

Soon, the man turned his head to leave the poultry farm.

“……!”

For a brief moment, the man’s face was visible inside the hood.

Dead, pitch-black tissue of the skin and clumps of sparse hair.The man had the face of a zombie.

‘He can talk, and he said he eats chicken, so he consumes food. But his appearance is that of a zombie…’

It was suspicious. Even bizarre.

I suddenly remembered the D-Mart survivor representatives meeting that took place a while ago.

At that place, Baek Seona had said,

“It seems that the appearance of mutant zombies is limited to areas near military bases.”

This place, Yangju, was like Paju, with many military bases, and there were reports of mutant zombie appearances in the community.

Perhaps…

Could that zombie man have something to do with the sudden appearance of mutant zombies?

I spoke to Serena and Ciel.

“Let’s tail him.”

We followed the zombie man while hiding our presence.

Serena, who was best at tailing, was the closest one following him, and we were further back, following Serena.

The man left the poultry farm and went into the forest. It was a forest with a flattened path where the plants had died, perhaps a path that people used to travel on.

After following him for about 20 minutes, a shabby house appeared.

The zombie man went inside the house.

Upon rejoining Serena, she quickly reported back.

“He went into the kitchen. It seems like he’s trying to cook the chicken, but preparing it will take some time. Shall we explore the inside in the meantime?”

I nodded immediately.

“Do it quickly. Make sure not to be discovered.”

“Yes!”

Serena promptly disappeared into the house.

Ciel had the skills to do this kind of infiltration too, but her bright and large wings were too conspicuous, so it wasn’t suitable.

After about a minute, Serena came out and reported.

But…

“There’s a strange space inside the house. It’s like that part of the space is broken or something… It’s hard to explain, Master. I think you’ll need to see it for yourself.”

“Lead the way.”

I followed Serena without further comment.

Given the urgent situation, lengthy explanations could be treacherous, but my mind was racing.

‘A broken space… Could it be something like a portal?’

Something commonly seen in games. A passage that connected one map to another.

A portal, or perhaps a gate, dimension door… After hearing Serena’s explanation, these were the only things that came to mind.

And what was that about, ‘Never say never’?

As we entered the house, something that looked like a portal was floating in the living room.

“Ugh…!”

I turned around at the sudden sound, and Ciel was frowning.

“I feel an extremely ominous aura, Master. This is the first time I’ve felt such an unpleasant sensation since I was born…!”

…This was not normal.

According to the description in her status window, Ciel was a ‘real angel.’

A ‘strongly ominous aura’ was detected by a real angel. Even if I didn’t know exactly what it was, this was not something to be taken lightly.

Then, Serena whispered from the side.

“Actually… I lightly touched it earlier to investigate, Master.”

I was horrified.

“Serena, you…! So dangerous…!”

What if she had been sucked into that portal? The thought of losing Serena suddenly made my head spin.

“I’m, I’m sorry… But when I touched it, a system message appeared. It wasn’t dangerous, so I think you should check it yourself, Master.”

“…”

Deciding to scold Serena later, I reached out to the portal in front of me.

The air had broken like glass, and the ominous portal swirled in dark red inside it.

As my hand touched it, a message appeared before my eyes.

Ding-!

[You have discovered a D-Class Rift of Asimone.]

[If the rift is not sealed within a certain period, Asimone’s minions inside will escape.]

[Time remaining until rift activation: 27d 12h 32m]

[Would you like to enter the rift?]

[Accept / Decline]