Chapter 118: Eun-ah
Chapter 118: Eun-ah
#
After spending hours exchanging stories with someone, it was only natural to wonder what their face looked like.
Being told not to do something only made you want to do it more, and anything hidden became that much more tempting to see.
'There must be a reason she's so desperate to hide her face...'
So I forced myself to hold back.
I assumed she'd show me when she was ready.
Whatever the reason, I figured it wasn't something I should pry into, so I let the matter go.
"Well, let's focus on getting out of here first. I need to retrieve my duffel bag too..."
"Okay... The Mutated Zombies are far more intelligent than I expected."
"Tell me about it."
Eun-ah said she had nowhere to go.
Even outside the zombies' territory, the threat of deranged humans remained.
Her food was gone, and she believed she'd have slowly starved to death if I hadn't returned for her.
What was I supposed to do about her?
"Get ready and come out. Oh, there's one last thing I want to ask..."
"Huh? Oh, okay..."
"Why have you been sulking since last night? From my perspective, I didn't even know you were a woman."
"It wasn't really about that..."
"You understood everything I said. Whether you're a man or a woman wasn't the point. I said it because the situation was dangerous."
"Yes... I know. I do understand, but..."
"Then why were you like that?"
Eun-ah stood before me and shrank into herself.
She was already small, and seeing her curl up like that only made me feel sorrier for her.
"Because I was scared."
"Huh?"
"I was like that because I was scared."
"Of me? Your reaction didn't make you look scared at all."
"I thought you were safe... But when you strode toward me, I became frightened before I could stop myself..."
Eun-ah struggled to explain herself.
I couldn't tell whether she had developed a fear of men or was simply intimidated by my size.
Whatever the cause, she said she'd been wrong and was reflecting on her behavior.
"Lift your head. Why are you curling up like that?"
"Aren't you going to scold me?"
"No. I only asked because I was curious. Just... Let's not do that again, all right?"
"Okay..."
This would probably take some time.
For her to truly open up to me...
"That's why I couldn't sleep properly either..."
"What? Why?"
"I was afraid you'd abandon me... I forced myself to stay awake because I thought you might disappear before dawn..."
"Haa... Then I'll promise you this. From now on, I won't leave without telling you. Is that enough?"
Eun-ah silently extended her pinky.
For someone who insisted she wasn't a kid, she certainly did plenty of childish things.
Her slender finger looked barely half as thick as mine.
I carefully hooked my pinky around her pale, delicate finger.
I didn't know why my heart softened so easily around this woman.
It felt different from when I'd met Na-yeong or Yu-jin.
'Does she stir up some kind of protective instinct?'
Eun-ah seemed satisfied once our pinkies were linked.
She turned toward the room, then paused and spoke again.
"But how tall are you, Mister?"
"I used to be 189 centimeters, but I don't know anymore. I think I may have grown taller."
"...You could spare me twenty centimeters and still be fine."
"Yeah? Then how tall are you?"
"..."
Clack.
Without answering, Eun-ah disappeared into the room.
Judging by eye, she didn't even seem to reach 150 centimeters.
I seriously wondered whether she was truly twenty.
#
We reached the rooftop of the officetel where I'd hidden my duffel bag.
"Wait here for a second."
"Huff... Huff... Okay..."
Eun-ah stood in the shade, calming her ragged breathing after the hard run.
I'd matched her pace and run all the way here without stopping.
Any zombies we encountered along the way had been smashed apart with the new weapon Eun-ah had given me.
Thud.
"Almost all of this is food. Let's repack everything, starting with your backpack."
"Me too?"
"Yeah. You need to carry your own emergency rations."
Fortunately, no one had looted the duffel bag.
I'd even considered the possibility that the zombies might have taken it.
"But seriously, this bat is incredible. Your ability is completely overpowered, isn't it?"
"I think your ability is much more overpowered, Mister..."
Eun-ah's ability worked much like a blacksmith's craft.
'Fusion: Reconstruction...'
She could use it to combine objects or repair them.
The most overpowered aspect, in my opinion, was Enchantment.
Enchantment was almost magical: it randomly strengthened a property suited to the object's characteristics.
Eun-ah was both a blacksmith and a Wizard.
"Wow... How did a self-defense bat receive exactly the durability enhancement it needed? It's fantastic being able to swing it as hard as I want."
"I think this one received an increase in destructive power..."
Eun-ah was holding the aluminum baseball bat I'd been using before.
"It's the right weight for you, so make good use of it. I only need something durable."
We repacked our belongings and stood up.
We'd consumed enough supplies to empty one duffel bag, but our water reserves had increased.
We now had two twenty-liter spring-water containers filled with rainwater.
Including the water-dispenser bottle, the water alone weighed close to a hundred kilograms.
"Heave-ho. Not bad."
"Your ability really is the more overpowered one, Mister..."
I lifted the cart once to test its weight.
I put a cigarette between my lips and offered one to her as well.
"Ah, I seriously don't smoke..."
"Hm... For real?"
"Yes... I really did keep the cigarettes for trading. What do I have to do to make you believe me?"
Her expression practically screamed that she was being falsely accused.
I moved some distance away before lighting my cigarette, while Eun-ah took out a piece of candy.
"Constantly eating candy like that... That's what people do when they're quitting smoking."
"Yes... Think whatever you want."
"But don't there seem to be far fewer zombies than expected?"
I leaned against the railing and looked down.
Since our position had already been exposed, I'd expected another encirclement on the way here, but the streets were quiet.
"Could it be because you killed so many of them, Mister?"
"Maybe. And that black cat is in this neighborhood too."
"What are you going to do?"
I hesitated.
Now that I had good weapons, I would have hunted down the Mutated Zombie Leader without hesitation if I'd been alone.
'Given that it can even control Mutated Zombies, it seems to be on an entirely different level.'
It wasn't competitiveness that tempted me. It was the food.
I suspected the zombies had most likely gathered this neighborhood's food supplies in one place.
The problem was Eun-ah.
She'd covered herself from head to toe in equipment made with her ability, but her body itself was completely ordinary.
Her stamina and running speed were excellent, but her physical strength seemed below average even for a woman.
She had no special combat ability either, so taking her into a confrontation with a zombie horde seemed far too dangerous.
"Let's just get out of here. Their territory ends a little farther ahead."
"Okay..."
And so we escaped the zombies' territory without incident.
Compared with the route I'd taken in to rescue Eun-ah, the escape was a walk in the park.
#
[Insang Guri LH Apartment Complex 4]
We arrived at the apartment complex where I'd met Yu-jin.
Since we were back in the area, I stopped by her apartment, but no one answered my knock.
"Someone I know lives here. I guess she went out scavenging."
"Okay..."
"We need to eat lunch soon anyway, and we should probably rest for a while..."
The rain had stopped in the morning.
The weather felt even hotter after the rain stopped.
I wasn't sure whether we'd find anywhere to rest in the apartment building.
"Mister, look at this..."
"Huh? What kind of key is that?"
"It's a master key... It can open any lock as long as it fits into the keyhole."
"Wow..."
The more I saw of Eun-ah's ability, the more I coveted it.
Its versatility and potential for growth seemed extraordinary.
Clunk.
"Oh? It really works. Amazing."
Rattle, rattle.
"Ah... But the electronic lock is still engaged."
I inserted the master key Eun-ah had given me into the neighboring apartment's door.
The lock in the door handle clicked open easily.
The problem was the powerless electronic lock, which had frozen in the locked position.
"Hold on a second... Let me try."
Eun-ah took position in front of the door and placed her hand on the electronic lock.
A faint light emerged from her hand and lingered over the lock for a moment.
"Now try opening it with the master key again."
Clunk. Creeeak.
"Huh? What the hell? Why did it open?"
When I inserted the master key and turned it, another locking mechanism disengaged.
The handle lock was already open, so hearing another lock release was strange.
Even more astonishingly, the door opened despite my never touching the electronic lock.
"I used my ability to fuse the electronic lock with the handle lock..."
"Whoa... You can do that too? They're separate mechanisms, so how does that work?"
"I don't know the exact principle either. Something similar happened before, but I couldn't do it then... Maybe my ability has grown stronger."
Eun-ah spoke with a trace of excitement in her voice.
Her usual tone had been somewhat gloomy, but after unlocking the door, her pitch rose slightly.
She sounded like a child hoping to be praised.
"That's incredible. What a ridiculous ability. You're going to accomplish great things someday."
"..."
"Let's go in..."
Apparently, my praise had missed the mark.
When she didn't respond, I brushed past her and entered the apartment first.
I tapped my bat against various surfaces to check for zombies, then began preparing a meal.
"Mister... Look at this."
"Huh? You found a portable stove?"
"Yes... I found it in the storage closet on the veranda."
Eun-ah returned carrying a portable gas stove and several butane canisters.
Using a gas stove was far easier and cooler than breaking apart furniture to build a fire, so I happily tried to light it.
Tick. Tick.
"Hm... I think it's broken."
"Just a second... I'll fix it."
Just as before, light glowed from Eun-ah's hand, and the stove began working.
It was an ability I coveted so badly it drove me mad.
With her around, the basic difficulty of survival seemed likely to plummet.
"This is amazing... We should take it with us too. We'll have to conserve the butane, though."
"Okay..."
The brief excitement in Eun-ah's voice had faded back to her usual tone.
My overreaction must have dampened her mood.
We prepared lunch with rice and canned food, then brewed more coffee afterward.
It felt recklessly wasteful, but we needed to discuss something important.
The coffee would help set the mood as well.
Clack.
"Here."
"Thank you."
"So... what are you going to do now?"
"Huh?"
My memories still hadn't returned, so I was heading toward Cheongpyeong for now, but did I truly need to travel alone?
Traveling alone was safer and easier in some respects, but considering Eun-ah's abilities, moving as a pair also seemed viable.
'The risk would increase, but...'
The bat she'd enhanced had already increased my combat power enormously.
I decided the benefits outweighed the risks.
Convincing myself that this was a rational judgment rather than an emotional decision, I spoke.