Chapter 154: Zombie Wave (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 154: Zombie Wave (2)
A Zombie Wave was a disaster one level above a Zombie Rush.
While a Zombie Rush meant packs of zombies became agitated and roamed a wider area with heightened sensitivity, a Zombie Wave was literally a wave—a tide of calamity sweeping through the city.
It sounded grand, but to put it simply, if a Zombie Rush was a small-to-medium-scale event involving dozens to hundreds of zombies, a Zombie Wave meant an additional horde of thousands was spawned.
And these Zombie Waves completely ignored the usual rules of zombies.
Unlike a Zombie Rush, where they only reacted if they heard a sound, caught a scent, and actually saw you.
A Zombie Wave was pure, unadulterated bullshit.
They just swarmed for no reason, destroying everything in their path.
How did I know?
"Captain. This Zombie Wave is the one from the Zombie Rush Mode, right?"
The Eagle Five Squad asked via Paradise Talk.
Well, the basic principle of the original Zombie Rush Mode was essentially a "Zombie Wave" anyway.
For absolutely no reason, the zombie bastards in the area would suddenly act as if they were possessed by a shaman and charge straight toward my location.
No reason.
No warning.
Even if you were holed up inside your house, holding your breath, they would still find you.
Well, that was what the mode was designed for, so in the game, you just had to grit your teeth and bear it. But doing that in reality would be too brutal, which was probably why the difficulty had been toned down to a Zombie Rush. Still, a Zombie Wave was that exact kind of disaster.
Of course, it wasn't completely unreasonable like in the game.
First of all, the difference between the game and reality was that in the game, the protagonist was "me," so they targeted me. In reality, there were countless "me's," making it difficult for the Zombie Wave to target any specific individual.
But even that was enough.
Just sweeping through the city itself.
That alone was enough to make people pray.
At least we could be thankful they didn't target anyone specific.
Please, let me not be in their path.
There was really no other answer but to pray.
Especially during the Blood Hour—how on earth were you supposed to stop a Zombie Wave of thousands?
By previous standards, a Level 1 zombie during the Blood Hour was slightly stronger than a Level 2 zombie that hadn't received the Safe Base debuff.
And there were thousands of them.
Even if the drug cartel bastards from the Yongsan US Military Base reincarnated and were fully armed, they wouldn't stand a chance.
That was why the word "disaster" was attached to it.
If there was one saving grace, it was that we got a warning.
Of course, nothing changed.
One way or another, death was the same.
Yet, amidst all this, two desperate struggles to survive reached me.
"Wow. They actually thought of this now?"
Two purchases had been made: the Base Cleaning Service and the Safe Escort Service, both listed at 5,000 Coins.
Regretfully, I hit the refund button and locked the shop items.
Even for me, this wouldn't be easy.
I had brought my sword, but that didn't mean I could look after someone or clean up a specific spot.
I had to defend our own base first; how could I help anyone else?
Of course, Paradise would be safe even if the Zombie Wave hit.
The Safe Base-Exclusive Outer Wall was already fully enhanced, so it wouldn't breach even if thousands of zombies pounded on it. Even if its durability wore down, I could just repair it with Coins.
Besides, the zombies would only pound on it to destroy it because their path was blocked, not because they knew people were inside. They would give up and move on after a while.
I was waiting for that moment.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud—
Even though the footsteps were coming from far away, they shook the ground.
Do you know the sheer thrill of facing thousands of zombies crawling out from all directions like cockroaches?
To make matters worse, the zombies coming down the main road were also spilling over from the left road.
There were so many of them that they split up and poured along the outer wall.
Should I be glad they weren't coming from all four directions?
A strange heat rose in my body.
I was nervous.
But I was confident.
Honestly, with my current stats, even if it was the Blood Hour, I couldn't die even if I wanted to, whether there were 1,000, 10,000, or 100,000 zombies.
Having sex had raised my base stats to 3 / 2 / 2 / 5.
And my stats from modes alone gave me +23 levels.
With the hot spring, buff potions, and item predation, I had brought all my stats to an average of 25+.
The swarming zombies seemed to move in slow motion.
They weren't exactly waddling, but because of their sheer numbers, it truly looked like a black tidal wave was surging forward.
I assumed a drawing stance.
"Whew."
I exhaled.
And stopped time.
As the tidal wave of zombies was about to crash over me,
I accelerated myself.
The sword slipped from its scabbard, slicing through everything in its path.
With my Agility exceeding 30 due to the instantaneous acceleration,
seven heads rolled from a single draw of my longsword.
The unsheathed blade moved without pause, decapitating one after another.
Other zombies trampled over the falling corpses, leaping to pounce on me.
Unbothered, I picked a direction and carved my way through them, securing a foothold.
Before I knew it, my field of vision narrowed.
No matter where I looked—front, back, sides, or even the sky—
there was nothing but zombies. Yet, I calmly swung my sword.
Back when I played Zombie Apocalypse, I was once obsessed with longswords.
There was no grand reason for it; I had just heard so much about the romance of the longsword on the Zombie Apocalypse Gallery that I decided to look into it, only to end up completely hooked.
When it came to the romance of the longsword, you couldn't leave out the Japanese anime Rurouni Kenshin.
The God of Sword who pacified the Meiji era with a single blade.
Watching that, I had tried to copy various techniques.
Well, unless you turned the anime techniques themselves into actual skills, replicating them wasn't easy.
But as far as looking cool went, if you sank enough hours into it, you could somehow mimic them.
That was all, though.
In the end, flashy moves were useless in a real fight against zombies.
Efficiency was everything.
When dealing with just one or two, you could pull off a "performance"—drawing the sword stylishly, sheathing it, and making it look like their heads fell off before you even drew the blade.
But in actual combat,
surrounded by hundreds or thousands of zombies, you didn't have a single second to waste on such theatrics.
So, it probably didn't look very cool.
Though my first draw had been romantic, now it was just a repetitive cycle of decapitations with every swing, driven by overwhelming stats and the absurd enhancement of my sword.
This was reality.
Whether you used a dagger, a scalpel, or a longsword,
in the end, there was only the most optimal path to kill zombies as efficiently as possible for each weapon.
And I happened to be the person who knew those efficient trajectories best.
I gripped the sword with both hands and spun it at neck height, like a Whirlwind.
Although the zombies were of varying heights, most of their necks or shoulders were cleanly sliced through by the blade.
There was absolutely no resistance.
Though its Sharpness level was a bit low, that deficiency was covered by the "+10 Damage to Zombies" stat.
I swung my sword in a trance.
Memories of the 1st Zombie Rush came back to me.
I suppose it was like this back then, too.
I lost track of how much time had passed.
At some point, the zombies' movements slowed down slightly, indicating that two hours had already passed and the Blood Hour was over.
Because I was running amok without dying, the Zombie Wave couldn't move past our base.
These bastards must have already swept through somewhere else before coming here.
By keeping them here, the places further down their path had essentially avoided the wave thanks to me.
In doing so, I might have unintentionally become the savior of Paradise.
"Ugh, fuck, they're not thinning out at all."
It felt good to go wild with a longsword after so long.
I had done plenty of repetitive grinding, and I even threw in some of my old flashy moves for fun, but the zombies showed no signs of decreasing.
I felt like I had killed about 500 of them.
"Sigh."
I've had my fun, so shall I wrap this up?
I didn't sheathe my sword.
Pulling out a rifle here wouldn't change much.
In fact, with this many zombies, a rifle would be slower.
Ammunition was limited, and the time spent reloading after emptying a mag would take longer than just swinging a sword.
One way or another, it would take another half-day to clear out the remaining zombies.
But I had a weapon prepared for exactly this kind of situation.
"They're packed in tight."
Like a crab bursting with roe, the main road between the Residential District and the Commercial District—all the way to the Trimage Intersection—was packed to the brim with zombies.
Even though I had killed nearly half of them, there were still so many left that it made me itch to shoot.
"Defense Turrets, on. Target all zombies within range."
Activating "Time Acceleration" and "Time Deceleration," I ran at full speed for the first time since the Zombie Wave began, shouting as I leaped up the outer wall.
The Defense Turrets, which had been hanging on the outer wall like mere decorations, began to operate for the first time.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat—
Deafening gunfire echoed from both sides.
Relying purely on my stats, I scaled the wall without any handholds and sat on the roof ten meters up.
"Wow."
Looking down from above, it was a spectacular sight.
Bullets rained down mercilessly on the hundreds of zombies.
Flamethrowers joined in, spewing fire to roast the zombies.
"Wow... Fuck... My Coins..."
Every single shot cost Coins, but...
watching the zombies collapse in waves like a falling tide was incredibly satisfying.