Chapter 19: You Walked in Here on Your Own Accord, Right?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 19: You Walked in Here on Your Own Accord, Right?
When there's an overwhelming difference in stats, you won't die as long as you don't get surrounded by zombies and have your movements restricted.
After all, you just have to kill them without getting bitten.
I went as far as I could, right up to the 100-pyeong limit from my house, and began the hunt.
Grab, stab the neck, tear away.
The simple, repetitive motions were practically manual labor.
If there was no room for error, there was nothing difficult about it.
It was a bit of a hassle to keep clearing a path so I wouldn't get surrounded all at once by the zombies swarming from all directions, but slaughtering them under the light I had prepared in the darkness was just a matter of time.
Clearing them out took about two hours.
The siren had wailed for exactly ten minutes, but in that short window, enough zombies had gathered to keep me fighting for two hours.
I must have muttered, "Did every single zombie in Seongsu-dong gather here?" at least a hundred times.
But I knew that wasn't the case.
At most, only the zombies wandering around this neighborhood would have come this way.
Zombies are brainless, but with the Blood Moon currently in the sky, they head toward wherever the most humans are.
The siren stimulated them, but there was no delicious scent of flesh here.
The people within a one to two-kilometer radius of this beggar neighborhood probably benefited from my actions.
Well, even that was a lot of people.
There was no need to count exactly how many I had killed.
[Repeat Quest 1-2]
- Defeat Zombies (★)
- 148 / 200
- Reward: 1 Point
Because I wanted an exact count, I had intentionally avoided killing any zombies after finishing 1-1.
Since I started from zero, I had killed exactly 148 of them.
In two hours.
"Fuck. There are so damn many of them."
Even with Level 4 Stamina, I was so out of breath that I felt like I couldn't do anything else.
I had plenty of scratches all over my body, too.
If this weren't a Safe Base, even a mere 5% infection rate would have stacked up so much that I probably would've been infected by now.
"I'm hungry."
With this many corpses, I could get a decent amount of farming done just by searching them.
But I didn't want to do that right now.
Dawn, just as the sun was about to rise.
The leisure of that moment when the deep darkness faded, gradually thinning into a bluish twilight.
I pulled out a picnic chair.
I had just picked up anything that looked useful while walking along the streets, but to think I'd actually find a use for this, too.
It felt like a waste of space to keep it inside, so I had just tossed it in the entryway. Now, I brought it outside the building, set it up, grabbed some ramen from the house, and put some water on to boil.
I also took some fresh kimchi out of the fridge, placed it on the peeled-back lid of the cup ramen, and waited three minutes.
"Haa."
In the chilly weather, the steam from the hot ramen warmed my hands.
Sitting in the picnic chair, I set the cup ramen on the ground, pulled out a beer mug I'd kept frozen in the freezer, and poured a canned beer with a steady glug-glug-glug.
"Maybe not quite as good as sex... but at least as good as masturbation?"
I quenched my dry throat with the cold beer.
"Kiyahhh!"
Actually, I could probably call this sex.
I took a huge bite of the slightly undercooked, chewy noodles.
The stamina I had drained over the last two hours began to recharge through the food.
"Hoo-ah."
My insides warmed up, contrasting with the cold air outside.
It felt exactly like eating cup ramen after returning from night duty in the military.
"I guess if I had gone to the military, I would've known this feeling."
I closed my eyes and savored the lingering aftertaste.
I could summon more if I wanted to, but I didn't feel like pushing it.
I could just take my time farming the zombie corpses, get some sleep, and then hunt again around nightfall.
After all, even if I didn't actively summon them, the Zombie Rush would keep moving, relentlessly seeking out people for the next three days.
The zombies that went after someone would face one of two fates.
They would either kill the survivor and move on to find another, or they would be killed by the survivors.
Kill or be killed.
The Zombie Rush was a binary deathmatch.
Which meant I didn't need to go out of my way to exhaust myself.
Just as I was about to relax and take my time, I sensed a presence coming from the narrow path I had cleared, and looked over.
"Huh?"
Even from a distance, the silhouette looked familiar.
I had seen a few people passing by before, but at this hour? Not many people were gutsy enough to roam the streets during a Zombie Rush.
It required immense courage.
Either they had nothing left to lose, or they were just stupid.
The cautious footsteps approaching me seemed to belong to the former.
The small silhouette stepped into the light I had left on, stopping to stare at me blankly.
I waved my hand.
"You're here?"
She got here faster than I expected.
Seeing her completely disheveled appearance, it looked like her barricade had been breached earlier than I anticipated.
Impressive.
I figured she would come looking for me eventually, but honestly, I hadn't expected her to make the trip right in the middle of a Zombie Rush.
Not because she wouldn't want to, but because navigating through the pitch-black night during the zombies' most sensitive period and traveling a distance that took nearly twenty minutes was no easy feat.
Perhaps she managed it because she had spent a few days roaming around as part of the Hunting Squad, memorizing the streets.
"Um..."
"It's fine. Come over here."
Unfortunately, there was only one camping chair, so I sat on the ground next to it and had Kim Ji-hee sit down.
Then, I handed her the cup ramen I was holding, went inside, and put on some fresh water for another one.
I even brought out a cold glass of beer.
"It's a welcome drink."
"Thank you."
Kim Ji-hee spoke politely, keeping a cautious eye on me.
Now that she realized she had to rely on me, she probably found it awkward to speak casually.
I didn't bother stopping her.
Treating each other comfortably was fine, but if she wanted to walk on eggshells and show some deference on her own, I had no reason to refuse.
For starters, the fact that Kim Ji-hee was a virgin made her more than qualified to be on my heroine list, but that didn't mean I could just coddle her like a girlfriend right away.
In this world, love is a luxury.
A moderate release of sexual desire.
Wasn't that the most rational form of love in the apocalypse?
Slurp.
The sound of her slurping the noodles echoed loudly in the silence.
"Um... are we doing it today too?"
Just as she was finishing up, Kim Ji-hee asked hesitantly.
There was no need to ask what she meant by "doing it."
I had already told her multiple times what would happen if she came to me, so she must have prepared herself.
"No."
We were going to live together now, so there was no need to pressure her from day one.
I felt like sex would be great anytime, but today, even without it, my brain was already flooded with more dopamine than sex could ever provide.
Besides, I was tired.
Kim Ji-hee would also need time to adjust.
After all, even if we did it when I wanted to, there would be a difference between her doing it after accepting her situation versus doing it reluctantly.
I immediately saw her expression soften a bit.
Regardless of her feelings, she had just fled the base she used to live in.
She had abandoned the people she called family and left everything behind to come here empty-handed. If I comforted her now, her trust in me would grow significantly.
Once she finished her ramen, I brought her inside.
"There's hot water, so go wash up. Wear this."
Though awkwardly on guard, Kim Ji-hee complied.
She washed up in the cramped bathroom and came out wearing a baggy long-sleeved shirt and a pair of skimpy panties I had scavenged beforehand.
"..."
The look she gave me was laced with a hint of contempt.
If she were to ask why there were women's panties in a guy's house, I could answer with pride.
"I farmed them so you could wear them when you came over."
She frowned, but she put them on without a fight.
The shirt was quite oversized, hiding the panties, but her bare skin was exposed from the thighs down.
"What about pants...?"
"Just stay like that inside the house."
"...Okay..."
She was so fucking pretty.
Since no one in their right mind would wear makeup in the apocalypse, she had to be bare-faced, yet she was truly the most beautiful person I had ever seen in my life.
"You're so fucking pretty."
I wanted to pounce on her right then and there.
Sensing my urge, she slipped away and lay down on the mattress.
Not like she had anywhere else to run, anyway.
She pressed herself against the wall and pulled out her phone.
Then, looking at the snacks piled up near the freezer, she asked,
"...Can I eat some of this?"
"What? Are you hungry?"
"Yes..."
Instead of giving her snacks, I pulled out another dish that had come as today's Special Meal.
It had arrived at 6:00 AM, so it should have gone cold a long time ago, but it was still piping hot.
[Thermal Pouch (★★★)]
- 30cm x 30cm x 30cm
- Keeps the temperature of the food inside hot for 24 hours.
- Can be used once per food item; food that has already received the warming effect cannot be reheated.
It was a survival item that had come along in today's supply box.
A highly useful Thermal Pouch.
While it wasn't particularly large, it was more than big enough to fit one or two meals.
It contained old-school, Western-style pork cutlet with warm soup.
Once again, she looked at me with eyes full of questions, but Kim Ji-hee ate without asking.
After eating her fill and even brushing her teeth, I could see her eyes half-closed.
"Can I sleep now?"
"Shall we sleep?"
Her nodding was quite cute.
"By the way, how old are you?"
"I'm twenty-three this year... My birthday already passed."
"Wow..."
"...What about you, ahjus—I mean, oppa?"
She must have gone through a lot.
Unlike me, the Zombie Rush that hit at bedtime was an unannounced disaster, so she hadn't even had time to feel tired. The journey here must have been filled with tension and terror.
Now, her tension was releasing, her body was growing sluggish, her stomach was full, and her back was warm.
It was only natural that sleepiness would wash over her.
Perhaps because of that, in her dazed state, her guard seemed to lower a bit more.
If she had called me ahjussi, I wouldn't have let her sleep.
She's quick-witted, changing how she addressed me so fast.
"I'm thirty this year."
"..."
"I look pretty young, don't I?"
"..."
At least give me some lip service.
Watching Kim Ji-hee lie down facing the wall instead of answering, I lay down on the mattress as well.
Although I had gotten some sleep earlier, having exhausted all my stamina, I was just as tired.
A soft mattress, a cozy blanket, and now, a pretty girl added to the mix.
"You walked in here on your own accord, right?"
In the quiet darkness, the sound of Kim Ji-hee nodding her head up and down rustled against the pillow.
I reached out and pulled Kim Ji-hee into my arms.
"I'll just hold your tits while I sleep."
"...Haah."
Fiddling with her soft breasts like a stuffed animal, I fell into a deep sleep.