Chapter 10: Hidden Quest
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 10: Hidden Quest
Exactly when I would kill this bastard was undecided.
But one thing was certain: the moment he hit me, his death became a done deal.
It wasn't just about simple revenge; it was a rule I lived by in the zombie apocalypse.
Even on a server with no other users and only NPCs, human conflict had always existed.
While they weren't as fluid and free-willed as real humans, the AI was sophisticated enough to mimic human behavior, which was more than enough to piss off countless users.
That was why the gallery was always flooded with posts from users complaining about being tricked and toyed with by NPCs.
But the solution to this problem was simpler than one might think.
You just had to make sure they didn't look down on you.
If you made it so they couldn't trick you, hit you, or look down on you, then at the very least, you wouldn't get deceived or ignored in the zombie apocalypse.
Well, the same went for reality, too.
The only difference was that while violence was restricted by law in reality, there were no such limits in the zombie apocalypse.
If you only half-assedly beat someone up, they would eventually target you again.
But if they died?
They couldn't target you even if they wanted to.
Besides, friction with these guys was inevitable sooner or later.
I hadn't come here to lend a helping hand to their faction.
I had only joined to see if there was anything worth milking under the guise of an event.
For a lone wolf like me, who survived by utilizing my own safe base, any group setting up a faction right next door was practically a potential hostile faction.
So, my actions were perfectly natural.
The opportunity had just come sooner than expected, so I put my plan into action.
"Uh, uh..."
Leaving the dumbfounded bastards behind, I kicked the guy—now a corpse—toward a zombie that was shuffling over.
The zombie eagerly dug into the meal it was given.
After all, zombies were living organisms too.
They were just humans dominated by the zombie virus, unable to think like humans.
Since they were alive and breathing, they naturally needed energy.
Their metabolism was different from humans, so they didn't need to eat as much, but if they didn't eat, their movements would eventually grow sluggish and slow.
Their food was humans.
They consumed energy by eating other humans.
They sometimes ate animals or raw meat, but for a mindless zombie, the easiest prey was a human moving right in front of them.
Once bitten and infected, a victim could no longer be food, which was why there were so many corpses scattered on the streets.
And the corpses of their own kind.
A zombie's corpse, too, was nothing but a lump of meat once it ceased to be a zombie, making it daily bread for other zombies.
Thus, the dead tattooed thug became zombie food.
"Ugh!"
Faced with such a gruesome sight for the first time, the bulky muscleheads were busy dry-heaving.
This was the normal reaction.
Even in games, many people found this level of realism uncomfortable and turned it off using mods, which was probably natural.
Kim Ji-hee was also turning her head away.
None of those were particularly good choices.
Because the zombie currently enjoying his meal in front of us hadn't just dropped by for a casual visit.
He was the prey we had to hunt.
Yet, they were politely waiting just because their prey was eating.
They even turned their heads away, as if worried he might feel self-conscious.
I didn't bother stopping them.
Only veterans were used to this kind of thing; for ordinary people, a situation like this was so repulsive they probably wanted to run away.
The meal was over quickly.
Apparently not a neat eater, the zombie had heavily mutilated the corpse before turning its gaze toward us.
A zombie wasn't like a wild beast that would turn away once its belly was full.
As it lunged toward me, its closest target, I slit its throat with the kitchen knife I had just used to stab the tattooed thug—who was now nothing but a tattered corpse.
Fortunately, some meat dropped.
Pork.
Without bothering to portion out a single kilogram, I tossed the whole chunk to one of the men.
It didn't matter whether it was 200 grams or 100 grams, or whatever I had said before.
To them, the more meat there was, the higher my value rose.
"What are you doing? Let's go. We have to fill our quotas."
In the first place, the moment meat dropped from the very first zombie, my quota was basically filled.
The problem lay with the other men.
The hunting squad's goal was at least 5 coins per person.
They had set it low because it was the first day, but once they got the hang of it, they would be ordered to bring back even more coins.
Besides, these guys were fighting zombies for the very first time.
Even if they managed to kill a few on their first day, they would still be clumsy.
Perhaps remembering their quotas, the muscular men finally moved.
They seemed to have forgotten that someone had just died, or at least they didn't dare bring it up.
It felt like the sneers they had looked at me with had shifted to wary, cautious glances.
Thanks to that, talking to Kim Ji-hee in private became a bit easier.
"Who on earth are you?"
"Just... a zombie apocalypse veteran?"
"What is this 'zombie apocalypse' everyone keeps talking about anyway?"
Funnily enough, I felt like Kim Ji-hee had grown a bit more comfortable around me.
Was it because we had already seen each other at our worst?
"It's just a game. It's so identical to this reality that people who played it call this a game-turned-reality. You know those 'modes' people talk about? Those were in the game too."
"..."
These were words someone who didn't play games could never understand.
I didn't bother explaining further.
Instead, Kim Ji-hee asked a different question.
"Are you... going to join this place too?"
"No. I'm going to tear it down."
"..."
"Are you stupid? Just looking at their faces, you can tell they're total pieces of shit. Do you really think you can live safely and properly here?"
"..."
Her eyes showed she didn't quite believe me.
"Are you here with family?"
"Yeah... Not my parents, though... My aunt and uncle."
"Ah, that middle-aged couple from before?"
The people I thought were her parents back in the auditorium must not have been.
That makes things a bit easier, then.
"Well, either way, your fate is sealed if you stay here."
"..."
"Getting passed around and fucked by those tattooed meatheads. A fucking delicious healer, right?"
"Are you any different?"
Kim Ji-hee didn't seem particularly shocked.
Since she was a former trainee, was she already used to these kinds of looks and situations from a young age?
Her expression was remarkably composed.
In fact, her question was quite sharp.
"Would I be? I didn't come here because of you, but once I saw you here, I started making my move, didn't I? To take you with me. If you come to my place, I'm going to fuck you senseless too."
"...You disgusting bastard."
"Isn't dealing with just me better than getting gangbanged? Plus, you'll be guaranteed safety, warmth, and a full stomach."
"In that tiny apartment?"
"It's small now, but it'll get bigger in the future. Just like my dick."
"..."
It was an incredibly crude thing to say, but seeing her seriously contemplate it... it really hit home that we were living in a zombie apocalypse now.
In the old reality, if a 30-year-old unemployed loser like me had spouted this kind of garbage to a former idol trainee, I would have been hauled straight to the police station.
Instead of getting slapped, she was actually giving it serious thought.
"No need to stress over it. When push comes to shove, you'll come to choose the lesser of two evils anyway."
I never force anyone.
Kim Ji-hee was the prettiest woman I had seen so far, so I did want her, but I wasn't about to obsess over her.
There were plenty of women anyway.
Beautiful women were rare, but in a world where power was everything, I—the server host with cheat modes enabled—was the ultimate truth and authority.
I was confident she would prefer my warm, cozy home over a place crawling with hundreds of people.
I also hunted whenever I got the chance.
I had come out here to complete my own quests, not to slack off and shoot the breeze with Kim Ji-hee while sending others to hunt.
"Here."
I handed 5 of the coins I had earned to Kim Ji-hee.
"Just a word of advice: don't give those to the tattooed pigs. I don't like sloppy seconds."
"Whatever. I'm not giving you any either, so piss off."
As expected, you have to rub shoulders to get closer.
Seeing her look much more relaxed than before, I dodged her hand as she swung to swat me.
It was a satisfying hunt.
When we returned, one of those four guys might blab about me killing the tattooed thug, but I didn't really care.
If they did, it would just lead to an interesting development in its own way.
And in the end, I was bound to clash with those tattooed thugs anyway.
[Hidden Quest 1]
– Kill a user
– 1 / 5
– Reward: 1 Point, 1 Hunting-type Cheat Mode
Naturally, there shouldn't have been anything like quests in a zombie apocalypse.
Because of that, the thought of there being a quest for killing users had never even crossed my mind.
To be honest, I had forgotten about quests entirely.
I had just cleared them thinking, Oh, they're giving me points? Sweet, and left it at that.
I hadn't expected there to be anything more.
But then, a Hidden Quest popped up.
Killing 5 people for 1 point was already insane efficiency, but they were even giving me a hunting-type mode.
And it wasn't just any normal mode.
It was something like a base-type cheat mode.
I had a strong gut feeling about it.
"So this is what they meant when they said I could learn everything."
Since these couldn't be unlocked with points but were rewarded through quests instead, I had thought I was scammed because I couldn't open them with points.
Part of me wanted to slit the throats of the four guys right here and claim the reward, but I held back.
Killing wasn't scary or difficult, but killing without a reason made me no different from a murderer.
If I didn't maintain my own boundaries, how would I be any different from a raving psychopath?
The important thing when balancing between a game and reality was sticking to one's principles.
Above all, I was currently trying to win over Kim Ji-hee.
She had already seen me kill a person and a zombie, but watching me slaughter people for no reason at all would paint a completely different picture.
After heading out in the morning, we roamed around until sunset before returning to Seongsu Apartment.
In that short span of time, they had managed to establish a rough outline of a base, gathering together to distribute food rations. It truly felt like a proper base now.
And surprisingly, even in the food distribution, a hierarchy had already been established.