The Weapon Genius: Anything I Hold Can Kill-Chapter 37: The Smell of Death

The plaza stretched out in front of them — wide, cracked, and too quiet.

The air was thick. Wrong.

And then the smell hit.

Rot.

Mildew.

Something sharp and chemical, burning at the back of their throats.

Seul lifted her sleeve to her nose, eyes narrowing.

Joon gagged, rubbing his face.

"Jesus," Joon coughed. "Smells like a dumpster fire inside a slaughterhouse."

"It's worse than that," Seul muttered.

Jin didn't flinch.

He just kept walking.

"Stay close," he said.

They stepped further into the plaza, boots crunching over shards of glass and twisted metal.

Not a single insect.

No birds.

Just the distant echo of their footsteps.

Something felt off.

Jin could feel it.

Like the whole plaza was holding its breath.

As they walked, a notification suddenly popped into their vision.

Min: "You guys dead yet?"

Seul physically jerked, turning like someone had tapped her shoulder.

Joon froze, staring at the text like it might detonate.

"Who the hell is Min?" Joon whispered.

Seul shot him a look. "Echo's name, idiot."

Joon blinked. "...Oh. Right."

Another text appeared.

Min: "it's me. Found a texting feature. :)"

Joon wiped his mouth, muttering. "Gonna electrocute him when we get back."

Min: "Anyway, everything looks chill on the map. Gonna spend the day training. Try not to die."

Min: "Or do. Your call."

Seul shook her head. "He's an idiot."

Jin barely glanced at the messages.

He just kept walking.

Focused.

Watching.

Min: "Logging off. Later, losers."

The messages disappeared, and the silence returned, heavier than before.

They moved carefully, sticking close as they checked each area of the plaza.

The stores were wrecked, shelves ransacked — but there were no bodies inside.

Only traces of struggle.

Bloody handprints streaked across glass windows.

Clothes and backpacks, abandoned mid-step.

A knife snapped in half, still embedded in the wall.

Joon ran his hand through his hair, breathing out slow.

"This feels bad," he muttered.

Seul bent down, touching a dried smear of blood on the pavement.

"The blood's old," she said, standing. "Whatever killed them shouldn't be here anymore."

Jin didn't answer.

He just scanned the lot, eyes sharp.

Watching the corpses.

They were scattered across the lot, twisted and broken.

But something about them felt... off.

They walked toward the center of the plaza, weaving through the dead bodies.

And the closer they got, the worse the corpses looked.

These weren't just rotting humans.

They were mutated beyond recognition.

One had two heads, both faces melted into a blank, fleshy mass. Another's spine jutted out through their skin, twisting into spiked ridges. Fingers fused together, forming blunt clubs of meat and bone.

Seul's jaw tightened.

Joon scratched his neck, eyes darting across the lot.

"Did... did the system do this?" Joon muttered.

Seul shook her head, voice low. "I don't think so."

Jin crouched by a corpse with no face, fingers brushing the pavement.

The body was warm.

And the ground beneath it?

Sticky.

Like the flesh was trying to fuse to the concrete.

He wiped his hand on his pants and stood.

"This is weird," Jin said, voice flat.

They reached the center of the plaza.

A pile of bodies stacked high — like someone had tried to build a monument out of flesh and bone.

Joon tilted his head. "Is that... a nest?"

Seul stepped closer, boots scraping against the ground.

She squinted.

The bodies weren't just stacked.

They were interlocked.

Limbs twisted together, like they'd been fused by force.

Skin melded like wax, binding them into a solid, throbbing mass.

And as Seul reached out, fingertips just inches from the surface —

The whole pile twitched.

Seul jerked back. Joon cursed.

Jin?

He just watched.

Silent. Still.

Because it wasn't just the pile.

The corpses around the plaza started to shift, one by one.

Fingers flexing.

Jaws cracking open.

Their twisted bodies jerked and snapped upright, like something was pulling them up by strings.

Eyes opened to show glowing, black pits.

Mouths gaped filled with teeth that didn't belong there.

And then they started to change.

Bones pushed out of their skin.

Spines stretched like serpent tails.

Limbs split into spider-like appendages, stabbing into the concrete.

The corpses warped and twisted, reshaping themselves into something barely human.

But Jin didn't flinch.

He just rolled his shoulders, fingers twitching by his side.

"Sooo... we're fighting now, right?" Joon asked aloud.

Jin tilted his head.

"Yeah."

The monsters finished forming, their deformed bodies creaking like wood under pressure.

They didn't charge.

They just stood there, swaying slightly — like they were deciding whether to kill them or not.

Jin's voice dropped.

"Stay close," he muttered. "We see what they do first."

And then the pile of corpses started to pulse.

Like a beating heart.

The twisted bodies in the lot snapped upright, limbs cracking into place, jaws unhinging.

Eyes like black voids locked onto Jin, Seul, and Joon.

They didn't charge.

They just stood there, twitching and swaying.

Watching.

Waiting.

Joon swallowed, voice low. "They're just standing there."

Seul adjusted her gloves, her voice tight. "Yeah it's creepy"

Jin didn't blink. "Straight out of a horror movie"

The corpse closest to them twitched.

Its jaw snapped shut, then slowly opened again — wider than it should.

Its mouth stretched and tore, skin splitting around the corners.

It spoke.

A voice like broken glass.

"Help... me."

Joon stiffened. "What the hell—"

Another corpse turned its head, vertebrae grinding as its neck twisted backward.

Its lips barely moved, but the voice came through.

"Please... kill... me..."

Seul's breathing hitched.

"Jin?"

Jin just exhaled, eyes dark. "They're still in there."

The corpses twitched violently, their fingers clawing at their own faces like they were trying to tear themselves apart.

The mouth of one corpse peeled open, a ruined voice cracking apart:

"Don't... want... to... be... this..."

And then they charged.

The first creature sprinted on all fours, its limbs bending at impossible angles, bones crunching with each step.

It wasn't fast.

But it didn't stop, even as its legs snapped and twisted beneath it.

It was like the body didn't care about the damage.

Jin didn't step back.

He just sidestepped, grabbed a rusted metal signpost, and swung it like a bat.

The impact shattered the creature's arm, sending it spinning to the ground — but it kept crawling, dragging itself forward with its jaw scraping against the pavement.

It kept talking, voice wet and broken.

"Hurts... hurts... hurts..."

Jin lifted the signpost and slammed it down again, crushing the creature's ribcage with enough force to pin it.

He didn't kill it.

He just stopped it from moving.

"Seul."

Seul stepped forward, lifted her hand, and crushed the creature into the ground with a gravitational spike, flattening it like a tin can.

It finally stopped speaking.

Seul's breathing was shaky. "...One down."

Jin didn't reply.

Because the rest of the corpses were already charging.

The corpses came like a wave of flesh — twisting, crawling, limbs jerking with an unnatural snap every time a joint broke and reset.

One monster dragged itself forward, its lower body completely shredded, intestines smearing across the pavement.

Another skittered sideways, its fingers twisted into long, brittle spikes that scratched against the concrete like nails on a chalkboard.

And they wouldn't stop.

Even when their bones cracked, even when their legs buckled, they kept crawling, mouths hanging open in silent agony.

Jin didn't hesitate.

His eyes flicked to the ground — spotted a splintered wooden plank, half of a storefront sign, lying in a pile of debris.

He grabbed it mid-stride, flipping it into his hand like it was a blade, and swung it in a sharp, brutal arc.

The wood smashed into a creature's knee, bending the joint backward with a loud pop.

The monster collapsed, limbs twitching, trying to crawl forward.

Its mouth peeled open.

"Can't... feel... anything..."

Jin ignored the voice and stomped on its wrist, the bones snapping like brittle sticks.

"Seul!" he shouted.

Seul slammed her hand down, her breath hitching as she increased the monster's weight tenfold — the body caved in, flesh splitting under the pressure as it was flattened into the ground.

Another corpse lunged from the side, arms stretched wide like it wanted to embrace him.

Jin's gaze snapped to a broken trash can lid lying nearby.

He snatched it up, twisting his body, and bashed it into the monster's face, shattering what was left of its jaw.

The monster fell back, limbs flailing — but it started standing again, its neck bending at an impossible angle.

Joon shouted, gloves crackling.

"Duck!"

Jin didn't think.

He just dropped.

A burst of electricity streaked overhead, searing through the monster's chest. It convulsed, smoke pouring from its body as it collapsed, limbs spasming.

Joon staggered, sweat dripping down his face, chest heaving.

"I can't keep doing that," Joon panted. "My energy reserves might run out —"

"Then don't miss," Jin muttered, shoving himself upright.

Jin's muscles screamed, but he kept moving.

He kicked a rusted metal rod off the ground, caught it mid-air, and smashed it into a monster's elbow, dislocating the joint.

The creature collapsed, but its mouth still moved.

"Th-thank you..."

Jin crushed its hand under his boot, locking it in place.

Another corpse came from behind — a bloated thing with a massive swollen chest that pulsed like it was about to burst.

Jin spotted a brick wedged in the remains of a store window.

He yanked it free, twisted, and hurled it at the creature's leg.

The brick smashed into the knee, shattering it instantly, and the monster collapsed forward, skidding face-first into the pavement.

Seul's voice cracked. "Jin, behind you!"

He didn't turn.

He just grabbed a metal bar from the ground, swung it behind him, and caught another corpse mid-lunge, caving in its spinal column.

The corpse still twitched, mouth stretching open as it spoke:

"It... hurts..."

Jin pressed the bar against its throat and forced it to the ground.

"I know," he muttered, voice flat. "I'm sorry."

Seul crushed it without waiting.

Joon's gloves were fading, sparks sputtering every time he tried to charge another shot.

He lifted his hand, but the arc shot failed, the energy fizzling out before it could fire.

"I — I need to rest up," he gasped.

Seul was barely standing.

Her vision was blurring, sweat dripping down her face. These things wouldn't stay down for long and the mental toll was getting to her.

A creature with half a head shambled toward her, its remaining eye rolled back, teeth clicking.

She tried to crush it, but her grip failed — the monster only stumbled, then kept coming.

The moment it lunged, Jin was already there.

He snatched a loose car mirror from the wreckage and smashed it into the monster's temple, knocking it off balance.

Then he grabbed an aluminum pole, swung it like a golf club, and obliterated the creature's kneecap, sending it crashing to the ground.

He didn't finish it off.

He just stepped back, panting hard, and jerked his head toward Seul.

"Do it."

Seul gritted her teeth, lifted her hand, and forced the monster into the pavement, crushing it until it stopped moving.

Her knees buckled immediately after, and she hit the ground, gasping for air.

Jin staggered back, nearly collapsing, his pulse thudding in his ears.

The plaza was quiet.

The monsters were dead.

And the corpse pile?

It was still pulsing.

Joon collapsed, wiping the sweat off his face. "...Are we done?"

Seul leaned against the wall, her chest heaving.

Jin wiped the blood from his mouth, his fingers still twitching.

His gaze locked onto the pile of bodies at the center of the plaza.

It throbbed.

Once.

Then again.

And then it started to breathe faster.

Jin clenched his fists.

"No," he muttered, voice rough. "Not yet."

The corpse pile shifted.

Like it was trying to stand up.