Competing Quests

Thud—thud—thud—thud—thud—thud—

Something that sounded like a cultivator rattled from the boat, and then the engine finally died.

"Hyung! There's smoke coming from here!"

"……"

At Mingu's shout I checked the smoking engine and found a small hole punched clean through it.

One of the bullets the soldiers had been spraying had buried itself in the engine block.

You could call it rotten luck, but it really wasn't. In the webtoon the boat that had been running fine also conked out under Dongho Bridge just so the next episode could start. This piece of junk just happened to die the moment we cleared Hannam Bridge.

"Yeonghun, take a break for a second—Mingu only~"

"Ugh…!!!"

"Hah…! Hah…!"

Two emergency oars were stowed on the boat, so Mingu and Yeonghun rowed us over to Jamwon Hangang Park and tied us up.

"Hey, it's still a boat. Feels kinda wasteful to just ditch it, doesn't it?"

"Forget it. This is good enough."

It had carried us all the way from Yeouido to Apgujeong. We could still paddle it if we wanted, so it still had decent value, but there was nowhere to secure it and anyone who found it would just hop in and leave. We left it floating and moved out right away.

"It's quieter here than I expected."

"Yeah."

We crossed Jamwon Hangang Park, passed under the Olympic Expressway through the underpass, and covered almost five hundred meters without running into more than ten zombies total.

From the moment we entered the city proper, though, we had to stay sharp. A swarm of dozens or hundreds could show up any second and it wouldn't even be surprising.

"Quiet."

"Kraaaah…"

The whole group froze the instant we spotted a single shambling zombie. The only one still moving was Nari.

Ting—

Shiiiiik!!

Thwack!

An arrow buried itself dead-center in the back of a zombie's skull from dozens of meters away. We started walking again.

Thud—

Sssuck!

Nari stepped on the dead zombie's head, yanked the arrow free, and the motion already looked completely natural.

Nari had clearly locked in her growth path. Ever since she started using the bow she poured almost every point into Agility, but after clearing the Resistance quest she made the unusual choice of raising Mental instead of her lowest stat, Durability.

That decision was tied ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to the Focus skill she picked up after the department-store quest. Once she had Focus her accuracy became absurd, and she decided mental strength mattered more than raw physical ability if she wanted to push that accuracy even higher.

"Nari."

"It's a little far, but I'll give it a shot."

Another zombie appeared. Could she hit it from this range? We could close the distance, but this was basically a test of her skill. Minimum fifty meters.

"……"

Taking longer than I expected. Normally she drew and loosed within a couple of seconds; this time she held the draw for a long stretch.

Everyone held their breath and focused.

Ting—

Shiiiiik!!

The string snapped free. The arrow arced through the air and punched clean through the head of a zombie that wasn't even standing still—just shambling around like a moving target.

"Whoa, holy crap!"

"Nari!"

"You're seriously cool!"

"Heh… I got lucky."

"Everyone quiet."

My single word killed the excited chatter. Nari looked a little disappointed, but when I gave her shoulder a light squeeze and nodded she lit up with a bright smile again.

Thanks to Nari's work we managed to slip through a relatively quiet stretch of street. Only about three hundred meters, but still.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Kraaaah!!!"

"Kraaah!!"

"Kraaaaaah!!"

"Kraaah!!"

"Kraaaaaaaa!!!"

"Kraaah!!!"

"Kraaaah!!!"

"Scratch the 'quieter than expected' comment!"

"Same here!"

The second we slipped out from between the two schools we hit a road packed solid with cars and zombies. Zombies were even piled on top of the vehicles now, so easy movement was off the table.

"Finally my turn to shine? Zombies! Over here!!"

"Jaemin!!"

"Just leave him."

"But…!"

Lee Jeongcheol stared at Jaemin yelling from the roof of a car with a worried face, but nobody in our group failed to pull their weight.

His Mental and Durability lagged behind mine by a lot, but if you only looked at Strength and Agility the gap wasn't huge.

[Strength: 16] [Agility: 19] [Stamina: 8] [Mental: 9] [Durability: 10]

Ten points still made a noticeable difference. Still, compared to Jaeyeol the gap was basically nothing.

I was still fifteen total points ahead, but Strength and Agility alone only differed by three. Of course I also had two extra skills and two of them were level 2, but still.

"Then we'll clear the path!"

"Follow me."

"Hey! It was my turn to look cool!"

Suho charged out in front and Gihun scrambled after him; those two no longer needed any worrying about.

Suho I could understand, but why the hell did that primitive man have three skills already? From my perspective it was great news, of course.

"Everyone go through!"

"Hurry!"

Jaeyeol drew zombies from both sides of the road a little farther out, Suho and Gihun punched the front open, and Mingu and Yeonghun—the ones yelling right now—covered the flanks and protected the rest of the group.

We didn't even need to go this hard anymore. Those guys could push through something like this without breaking a sweat.

"Girls! Follow me!"

Jihye took the lead among the women, and the three college girls had gotten strong enough that their stats barely differed from Jihye or Nari.

Information Gathering, huh. She got that skill after clearing the department-store quest and still hadn't used it once. Hell, I didn't even know how it was supposed to work. Was it for cracking door-lock codes or hacking phones and computers? Wow… if that was the case it was a completely useless skill.

Even if it turned out useless, our roster was already broken as hell. And that still wasn't the end of it.

"We'll handle this side."

Baek Sihyeon, Yu Eunseol, Choi Junseok, Kim Seojeong, Lee Jeongcheol, and even the still-suspicious An Gyeongsu. With this lineup we could clear the water-treatment-plant quest while yawning.

Between Apgujeong Station and Apgujeong Rodeo Station we used a one-time, irreversible Safe Zone Setting Ticket on the third floor of a four-story mixed-use commercial building. The location was geographically solid and the floor was exactly thirty pyeong. We hadn't known it was thirty pyeong beforehand—we just walked around testing the ticket until the system told us how many pyeong we were short or over.

"Ahh… I feel human again…"

I flopped onto the sofa after winning rock-paper-scissors fair and square and getting first dibs on the shower. Jaeyeol, who had been sprawled on the floor, sat up and asked,

"Hyung, why the third floor? If you'd set it on the second, the third and fourth would be safe too."

He ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠didn't mean the other floors would become safe zones. He just meant that if the second floor was secure, the third and fourth would naturally become safe spaces as well. I'd already factored that in when I chose the third.

"The girls are girls, so the guys agreed to give them the safe zone, right?"

"Yes."

"We gave up the safe zone so they'd be safe. We can't turn around and tell them to live on the second floor. If anything happens, the second floor is the first place that gets hit."

"Ah… yeah, that makes sense."

"Quit yapping and go wash already! If you don't, I'm going first again?!"

"Going in right now!"

Jaeyeol, who'd come in second in rock-paper-scissors, bolted into the bathroom. I turned to Gihun, who was smacking his lips in disappointment.

"I'm heading out for a bit."

"Where??"

"Just a walk. I'll be back before dinner, so take the kids and clean up a little~"

"Hey! You're just ditching cleaning, aren't you?! Hey, you bastard!!!"

I did hate cleaning, but I wasn't about to go outside and get dirty again right after a shower just for that. We'd arrived in Apgujeong faster than the webtoon's timeline, so I was going out to check the situation. If the contaminated water hadn't started yet, way more people would still be alive than what I'd seen in the webtoon.

And sure enough, a survival report came in right on cue.

"Somebody help me!!!!!!!!!!"

A woman's scream tore through the air like it was being ripped apart.

And the system was handing out conflicting quests like this? White and black—pick one and abandon the other, huh?

Don't write whatever the hell you want in the penalty section!!

Erectile dysfunction? No matter what happens, I'm taking her!

But what the hell is this? Are they seriously competing right now??

Suddenly the white quest popped up again—with new conditions.

I froze solid.

Six whole stat points. Plus a thousand points and a Random Skill Box on the line.

But you've got the direction completely wrong here. If you're going to give something, give me a Skill Deletion Ticket, not a Random Skill Box.

Stop it already, you bastard!!!!