Ant Nest

The department store survivors, after getting thoroughly beaten with plastic bottles and stripped of every last scrap of food and water, were on their knees scraping the floor in apology as if they had become entirely different people.

"Eunho, we were wrong! Honestly, I never meant to go that far! But they kept egging me on..!!"

"Who egged who on?!"

"You went right along with it!"

"Shut up!!! When did I ever!!"

"Sora, we messed up! Yeonjeong, I've been covering for you this whole time, right? Let's not be this cruel to each other..!"

"If you don't help us we're all going to die for real..! We don't even have anything to eat right now—how are we supposed to survive..!!"

Honestly, I couldn't care less what decision those people made.

Whether they forgave each other and joined forces again or split for good had absolutely nothing to do with me.

I just needed to clear my quests.

"Alright, listen up!"

I clapped my hands hard and raised my voice, drawing every eye in the room.

"This department store has no more food or water left to hold out on. You all understand that, right?"

"......"

"......"

"......"

"......"

Eyes full of resentment, distrust, and fear poured over me.

I kept talking anyway.

"If you want to survive, you need to raise your stats, acquire skills and weapons to get stronger, and gather enough points to secure a safe water supply."

"S-so what?! What are you trying to say....."

"I'll help you."

"Huh..?"

The man who had just beaten them, stolen their food, and taken their water was suddenly offering help. People started murmuring among themselves.

That didn't matter either.

If they didn't trust me and refused to join of their own will, I could just drag them along by force.

But it turned out I didn't need to.

They weren't completely brainless—once they heard they could get free quests plus stats and points, most of the men raised their hands and said they were in.

"Alright, Suho. Take Jaeyeol and Seo Hamin and head to the villa. Bring some people back."

"People?"

"Yeah. We're going on a quest tonight."

"What kind of quest?"

"Just do me a favor, okay?"

The first time I received one in the detention center, a description had appeared underneath, but black quests—and even white ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ones—were personal. You couldn't share them with anyone else or even talk about the contents.

But Suho and the others trusted me completely, so I didn't need to explain why.

"Fine, whatever."

"Thanks. The rest of you wait here. I'm heading out for a bit myself."

"Where are you going??"

"I want to pinpoint the exact location of the spawning ground."

"The spawning ground??"

"What are you talking about? We've been searching for days and haven't seen so much as a hair of it. How are you going to find it?"

"Got it as a quest reward."

"What? You've been doing quests on your own?"

"What kind of quest was it?"

"That's so unfair! You should've taken us with you!"

It was starting to get a little annoying, so I brushed them off and left the department store, heading straight toward Cheongdam-dong.

Following the faint blue light that had begun to appear in my vision, just like when I'd received the detention center key hint.

I must have covered more than five hundred meters from the department store.

The good news was that the route followed roads packed with cars the whole way, so bringing people along later would be relatively easy.

"Here..?"

When I reached the school near the southern end of Seongsu Bridge intersection, the faint blue light vanished.

That meant it was here or somewhere nearby—but that didn't make sense.

Five hundred meters from the department store was far enough to call it distant, but from our commercial-residential shelter it was only about a hundred and fifty meters. We had already checked this place.

"Is it really here?"

The high school and middle school were connected, so I checked both again.

Sound barriers lined the road side, and a fairly high wall faced the apartment complex, so the playground was clean. The school buildings and gymnasium were dusty but otherwise spotless.

No trace of a spawning ground anywhere.

"This pervert god is messing with me..!!"

I scowled and started walking out of the school—then stopped dead, lowered my head, and stared down at the dirt playground under my feet. I lifted my right foot.

Thud— thud-thud—

I stamped the dirt a few times, then turned and looked out across the wide field.

"No way...."

That was when it started.

Thud! Thud-thud!!

Like police searching a hillside for a body on the news or in a movie, I jabbed the ground with a stick and walked the entire playground.

If the faint blue light hint was accurate, this was the only place a spawning ground could be.

Right under...

"Bingo."

The ground beneath our feet, invisible to the eye.

Thududududuk!!!

Been a while.

A red quest.

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

Spawning grounds had to be ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cleared at night.

Once night fell, the zombies inside would leave.

But I brought a group that included the villa people—exactly fifty in total—and entered the spawning ground in broad daylight while the sun was still high.

"An actual quest...."

"Shh."

"......"

I'd already told them to keep quiet, yet someone was still talking.

I turned and glared at the speaker. Beside me, Mingu pressed a finger to his lips and waved them out; he quickly herded the people outside.

"Mister..!!"

"S-sorry... it was just so cool..."

There was only one reason I'd brought them into the spawning ground in the middle of the day and then brought them back out.

They weren't going to participate in the actual assault.

I just needed them to receive the quest, then send them back to the department store and the villa.

That was why I'd brought them here during the day instead of at night.

"Juhan hyung."

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

An Gyeongsu.

Well, that was new.

He was actually speaking to me first.

Nothing had happened so far, so most of my suspicion toward him had faded—but a little still remained.

I still couldn't shake that unexplainable unease about the guy.

"What?"

"If quests can be cleared this way, wouldn't it be better to bring the women and kids too? We're just going to give them the quest and send them back anyway."

"Getting them here is too dangerous and exhausting. No."

"But it gives three stats and three hundred points each. If we put in a little extra effort to help them, they could live much more safely. And we still have plenty of time until night."

"Oppa, I want to help too."

"Hyung, if we're going to help, we might as well do it properly."

"I'm for it."

"Me too."

"I agree!"

Nari, Jaeyeol, Suho, Baek Sihyeon, even Seo Hayun... no, everyone cast their vote in favor of An Gyeongsu's suggestion.

He wasn't wrong, of course.

There were forty-nine people at the department store and forty-two at the villa.

If every single one of them received the stats and points, this quest alone would net 273 stats and 27,300P.

The starting line for people trying to begin again would be completely different.

"Haa... Fine. Let's do it."

In the end I accepted An Gyeongsu's proposal. We escorted the people who had received the quest back to the department store and the villa.

Then we carefully, safely moved the women and children who had remained behind, bit by bit, until all ninety-one people had received the quest.

In the meantime, just like at the hospital, a few of us secured gasoline from the station across the street from the school so we could burn the spawning ground.

With every preparation finished, we waited inside the gymnasium, watching the sky darken through the windows.

Keeping our eyes fixed on the hole in the playground that looked like a small sinkhole.

At last the sun went down.

Then a problem appeared.

Not a single zombie came pouring out of the spawning ground the way they were supposed to.

"Maybe there's another entrance?"

"Another entrance?"

Baek Sihyeon might be right.

Zombies born from the Zombie Queen were already wandering around outside even during the day.

But what if he was wrong?

This spawning ground quest was different from the one I'd received at the hospital in Yeouido.

Back then there had clearly been a failure penalty involving the appearance of special zombies. That line was missing from this quest.

Which meant special zombies had already emerged—and if those things were still lingering inside the spawning ground, even sticking close to Baek Sihyeon might not be enough to get us out alive.

"Hey, then why don't we just check?"

"How?"

"Walk in through the entrance and yell."

"......"

It was a completely crude method, but nothing more certain existed, so we went with Gihoon's idea.

"Wait here a second."

Just in case, the others stayed in the gymnasium while I went out alone onto the playground.

I walked into the hole where a fairly steep downward path began and shouted in a reasonably loud voice.

"Yoo-hoo~~!!"

Maybe I should have picked something other than "yoo-hoo"?

It felt a little embarrassing, but more important was the complete silence that answered me.

Looks like there really is another entrance.

I climbed back up to the playground and waved for them to come. The waiting group poured out of the gymnasium.

"But are you sure about this? Why don't you guys just go home and wait?"

"And then only we don't clear the quest?"

"That's..."

"Oppa, we're really strong now!"

"Yeah! Stop treating us like kids!"

The three college girls were brimming with overconfidence.

But they weren't wrong.

They were already far stronger than Seong Eunho, the strongest person at the department store, and even compared to the villa people they ranked among the top.

Still, taking the girls in here felt a little wrong.

The three college girls, Jihye, Nari, Kim Seojeong, Seo Hayun—none of them were as strong as Yu Eunseol or Seo Hamin.

"You're not coming?"

"Then we'll go in first~~"

"Don't get lost trying to follow us~"

"Hey..!! Ugh..."

Whatever. Let's just go.

If things got truly dangerous I could use a shop summon ticket.

Though... would a shop even summon in a space this narrow?

"......"

Pointless worry.

After following the fairly steep downward path for a long while, a vast cavern opened up—like a cave that had existed for hundreds of thousands of years.

And just like looking into an ant nest, five tunnels branched off in every direction, leading who knew where.

"Which way are we supposed to go..?"

"Hyung, I have to go this way."

"What??"

"This one for me."

"Mine's over here."

"Same."

"What the hell is everyone talking about??"

Suddenly each of them was pointing at a different tunnel.

And then I understood why.

So this is what "story difficulty increase" meant...

The difficulty had risen far higher than I'd expected.