Finally Meeting the Future Protagonist's Party
Monsters with intelligence are truly terrifying—but this time, that very intelligence was what made them easy to beat.
When things stopped going the way it had planned, the Mutant panicked. It kept fretting over its own body and missed chance after chance to counterattack. Worst of all, it thought far too much mid-fight.
It was watching me, watching Jaeyeol—and more than anything, it felt less like a creature trying to finish us off and more like one desperate to get out of the situation.
Of course, the single most decisive factor was landing that Critical Strike cleanly on its face.
What if the Critical Strike hadn't appeared on its face? What if the one-minute time limit had run out and the skill had deactivated? Even if we'd somehow won by pure luck, Jaeyeol and I would be lying next to Mingu with his wrecked back, waiting for death to come any day now.
But those what-ifs mean nothing.
Because I won.
◈ Skills
Enhanced Vision (LV.1)
Stat Amplification (LV.1)
Critical Strike (LV.1)
Strength +1, Stamina +1, Endurance +2.
Thanks to that, my stats had risen evenly across the board. The balance was excellent.
And with 200P in hand, if I hit the shop I could probably pick up at least one useful early-game item. Jaeyeol had earned 100P too.
◈ Skills
Indomitable (LV.1)
Instant Acceleration (LV.1)
Jaeyeol had picked up points and stats as well—100P, Strength +1, Endurance +2.
For the moment, we might even be stronger than the protagonist's party.
Even so, we still had to join up with them. They had that absurd protagonist-protection buff, after all.
The problem was that Mapo Bridge had collapsed.
"Young man, thank you! We made it safe thanks to you!"
"You and your lady are alright too, right??"
"The kids are okay, aren't they??"
"Yes, everyone's fine."
"We're doing great!"
"I want the doenjang-jjigae the ajumma made for us again… hiiing…"
"You're not hurt anywhere, are you??"
The Mutant had dragged a horde of zombies straight to our building, and the emptied roads had been filled back in by the zombies that had been loitering around the apartment and the sauna. Thanks to that, Kwon Suhyeok's group had been able to rescue the older women without a hitch.
But the warm greetings ended there. From here on, we needed conversations that actually helped.
"Seongho, can you check inside the subway station with the drone?"
"I'd get grabbed by a zombie going down the stairs. Or crash into a ceiling or a wall trying to dodge one. And the signal might drop. It's underground, after all."
"Hmm…"
With Mapo Bridge down, the only ways into Yeouido were the underwater tunnel running beneath the Han River, Wonhyo Bridge, or Seogang Bridge—the one the protagonist's party used.
No—there was one more option. Crossing the collapsed Mapo Bridge itself.
"How is it? Completely gone?"
"This is Kwon Suhyeok. The bridge isn't completely destroyed—only the middle section is severed."
"How bad? Think we could cross?"
"Ah… well… judging by the regular passenger cars hanging off the broken edge, it looks like about seven or eight car-lengths."
It varies by model, but a typical passenger car runs a little over four meters and just under five. Even giving ourselves every advantage, the gap was still over thirty meters.
No good.
"If there's no other way, would you consider rejoining us?"
"No. We're going to Yeouido."
"Ah… yes, understood. Then what do you plan to do?"
"Figure it out from here."
I hung up, and we all put our heads together.
Plenty of ideas came out. Since we couldn't move until Mingu and Gihun recovered anyway, we could wait for a rescue team the military might send. We had time—we could go down into Mapo Station ourselves and check whether it was passable. Head for the nearby Wonhyo Bridge and cross there. Or take Seogang Bridge, which would drop us right at the National Assembly Building.
"But what if Wonhyo Bridge or Seogang Bridge is broken too??"
"Then we check."
Once again, we leaned on Lee Seongho. The control range meant he couldn't fly the drone the full length of either bridge end to end, but using the high-definition telephoto lens to assess their condition was more than doable.
"Hyung, Wonhyo Bridge is down, but Seogang Bridge is intact. Though it looks blocked?"
"Can I see that footage myself?"
"I'll upload it to the cloud."
"Ah! Then one more favor."
A promising idea had just hit me. If I was right, getting to Seogang Bridge might not be that hard at all.
While we waited for the upload, we rested. There wasn't much else to do. Going down into Mapo Station to check if it was passable wasn't an option right now—not until the zombies the Mutant had dragged in scattered enough for us to leave the building.
But this was a world inside a webtoon, so Gihun and I weren't bored in the slightest. This world was full of movies and dramas we'd never seen.
"KRAAAAH!!!"
"Kyaaak!!"
"Kyaak!!"
"Ah…!"
"C-can we watch something else…? Why does it have to be a zombie movie!!"
"Your taste is seriously messed up…!"
The women screamed every time a zombie appeared or a brutal scene hit the screen.
Why, though? We'd already survived the real thing—not a movie.
"Think of it as training. Get used to this stuff and you won't panic when it actually happens. You'll handle it better."
"Nice try…! You're just watching because you want to…!!"
"Aaaah..!!"
Jihye was right. I was watching because I wanted to.
Not so much because it was fun—more because Jihye and Nari, pressed tight against either side of me, were crushing their chests into my arms and body.
Felt good.
Squeeze— squeeze—
At the hands kneading their asses, Jihye and Nari flinched and shot nervous glances at the others gathered in the conference room.
(Hey…!)
(Oppa…)
They were embarrassed, but everyone else was glued to the beam-projector screen, so it was fine. And since we were sitting flush against the back wall, farther back than the rest, there was no real risk of anyone spotting the hands working their asses.
Then again—Jihye really was a pervert, wasn't she?
Slide—
Even while saying she hated it, she slipped the hand she'd pushed deep between her thighs and teased my cock.
But why right now, of all times.
"Huh?? He just texted—upload's done!"
"Ah…"
"Hyung??"
"Nothing. Play it."
"Yes."
Jaemin stopped the movie, connected the laptop to the cloud, and started the uploaded video.
"Hey, the bridge part is at fourteen minutes."
"Got it."
He scrubbed forward, and footage of Seogang Bridge began to play. Zombies, cars—and far off at the far end, a line of tanks sealing the bridge off.
"The bridge really is intact, though?"
"Not that. Scrub further back."
"Here?"
"A little more. Here! Forward thirty seconds."
The bridge being intact was confirmed. What came next was the extra footage I'd specifically asked Lee Seongho to shoot—the long riverside promenade running along the Han River.
"Huh…? Why are there so few zombies here…?"
Not zero—but remarkably few. Even with the Gangbyeon Expressway running along the hill right beside it, the path was that quiet for two reasons.
"Most of the noise comes from the city side, so the zombies naturally drift that way instead of toward the quiet river. Like instinct."
"Ah…"
"And the sound barriers. The ones installed facing the city keep the zombies from spilling out toward the river."
"Then shouldn't the zombies on the road not be able to get into the city either?"
"Look there. They can't go straight through because of the barriers, so they just wander blankly along the road. There's a guardrail on the river side too—they bump into it and turn around."
"Ah… you're right. So if we go this way, we'd be safe, right?"
True enough—but not unconditionally safe.
"The second a loud noise goes off down below, every last one of those things on the road will come pouring down."
"Then what?"
"We make sure they never know anything's happening underneath."
"How??"
"With the thing shooting this footage."
The plan came together in an instant. All that remained was waiting for Gihun and Mingu to recover enough to move.
At night, zombies jump to the next inflection point of strength. They react hyper-sensitively to sound, their aggression spikes, and they cling to their targets with even more stubborn persistence.
Wiiiiiiiiing!!!!!!
Just like those things chasing the drone's noise in a blind frenzy.
"Huff… huff… huff…"
"Haaah…! Haaah…!"
"Haa! Haa! Haa!"
Ragged breathing echoed through the dark underpass.
Two days had passed since we killed the Mutant. Gihun and Mingu were well enough now, and we were on our way to Seogang Bridge—at the late hour of ten at night.
"Hyung, launching again."
"Can you hurry it up? I'm getting pretty nervous here."
"Yes~ yes~ heading over now~~"
The drone that had lured the zombies so we could get this far had safely swapped batteries and was flying back.
"KRAAAAH!!!"
"KRAAH!!!"
"KRAAAAAH!!!"
"KRAAH!!"
"KRAH!!"
"KRAAAH!!"
"Hyung, I'm right above you."
"Yeah. The zombies are going nuts. Move slow."
"Got it."
I didn't need to see it. The racket of the zombies fading, then a new racket closing in again, was enough to know they were following the drone.
"Let's go."
We slipped out of the underpass where we'd been hiding and moved to the riverside bike path and promenade.
"Take it slow. Seongho, slow."
"Yes."
The streetlights being on was a mild problem, but Seongho was flying the drone as tight to the sound barriers as possible, so the angle made it almost impossible for the zombies on the road to spot us.
Like that, slowly—my night vision sharpened by the Enhanced Vision skill—I began moving forward, scanning ahead as thoroughly as I could.
Slide—
I clenched a fist and raised it. The signal brought the whole group behind me to a simultaneous halt. I opened the fist and reached back; Mingu set a hand axe in my palm. Jaeyeol stepped up beside me.
(I'll take left.)
(I'll take right.)
Two zombies loitering up ahead. Standing under a streetlight, their positions were locked. I also carefully checked the unlit stretches and confirmed there were no others.
Thud!!
Thaat!!
Definitely different. Same stats, but with Instant Acceleration, Jaeyeol was already way ahead of me—he took the head clean off the zombie that turned at the sound of footsteps.
I arrived a beat later and split the skull of the one that had been about to scream at the sight of him.
Shunk!!
Jaeyeol finished the fallen head with a downward strike of his machete, then waved the group forward. I scanned farther ahead for more zombies.
"Seongho, how's it look up top?"
"Nothing weird here. They're just chasing me like maniacs. How about your side?"
"Quiet here too. Keep going."
"Yes."
Should I have brought Seongho with us? The thought of moving without his drone support already made the road ahead look bleak. Still—once we joined up at the National Assembly Building, there'd be plenty of time to grow stronger.
Step— step— step—
About six hundred meters to the underpass. From the underpass to beneath Seogang Bridge, about 1.2 kilometers. So far, the move had been almost too smooth.
And then Seogang Bridge came into view in the distance.
Then a problem appeared.
On the right, an underpass with a sign reading "Interchange."
The underpass where we'd hidden waiting for the drone had been safe because we'd already cleared the zombies out of it. This one hadn't been cleared. There was no telling how many were inside.
"Seongho, hold the drone. Another underpass just showed up."
"Want me to send the drone in and draw them out?"
"Then we all die. The zombies would pour down here following it."
"Ah…"
"I'll clear it quick and signal you. Stand by a second."
"Yes."
Pressed flat to the wall, we moved as stealthily as we could up to the underpass entrance.
(Don't hesitate. Don't even think. Go in and kill whatever's closest first.)
(Yes.)
This time it wasn't just Jaeyeol and me.
(One, two…)
Everyone but the women was going in. We had to finish it as fast and clean as possible so the noise stayed minimal.
(Three.)
The count ended and we rounded the corner, charging straight into the underpass.
Thud!!
I kicked the first thing I saw square in the gut, then hauled the entrenching shovel high to smash the back of its head as it dropped. Beside me, Jaeyeol brought his machete down hard on whatever was in front of him.
CLANG!!!!
A deafening metallic ring. Jaeyeol's machete had been blocked—by the entrenching shovel I'd swung sideways.
Hiss!
I twisted my ankle, spun hard toward Jaeyeol, and drove a kick out.
Thud!!!
I wasn't aiming at him. I kicked aside the spear flying straight for his chest.
Then I raised my left hand at once, palm open.
"We don't want to fight. We mistook you for zombies."
"Huff…! Huff…!"
"Augh!!"
"A-are you okay…?"
The people we'd just ambushed edged slowly backward, eyes locked on us in wariness.
If my eyesight had been any worse, I might have killed them.
The protagonist's party—finally met.
No. The people who would become that party.