Chapter 24: End of the 1st Zombie Rush
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 24: End of the 1st Zombie Rush
Once upon a time... about ten years ago, when Zombie Apocalypse was hailed as an unprecedented masterpiece of a game...
Countless newbies posted questions on the Zombie Apocalypse Gallery.
[How do I fight?]
[I lost a 1v1 against a Level 1 zombie ㅠㅠ]
[Can someone tell me how to hunt zombies...]
VR gave modern people experiences they could never have in reality, but unfortunately, VR could not perform the miracle of making someone capable of doing something they had never actually done before.
If it were a game with skills, players could at least spam them to feel like they were good at combat. But Zombie Apocalypse had no such thing; it was a game where you had to pick up a weapon and fight zombies yourself.
In a world where most people flinch and take a step back just seeing a dog on the street, how many could calmly face and defeat a human-looking creature rushing at them, drooling and trying to tear them apart?
Even if you taught them how, they wouldn't be able to do it, so there was no way anyone on the gallery could explain how to fight.
So, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the biggest barrier to entry in Zombie Apocalypse was combat.
I was no different.
Fighting zombies, winning, and surviving among them.
The combat methods I acquired over 100,000 hours of experience were entirely self-taught—learned by watching, observing, and simply fighting.
So, I didn't really have any specific combat techniques.
See, dodge, stab.
See, dodge, strike.
Most of it was just reaction speed coming from superior stats, and stabbing vital points was merely a physical reflex honed by killing millions of zombies.
So, seeing these trajectories was a pretty fresh experience for me.
Actually, there was a mode for this too.
A mode that let you see the enemy's attack trajectory and react accordingly.
I hadn't applied this one myself, but I recalled quite a few people downloading it.
And the reviews weren't bad either.
Since it was a mode designed to make combat easier, it did indeed make combat easier.
But did it yield results as great as the mode's intended purpose? Apparently, not quite.
Seeing the trajectory of an attack certainly helps in combat.
If someone couldn't tell where an incoming fist was aiming, it would be of obvious help.
But for someone like me, who was so used to combat that I instinctively knew where an attack was coming from, it wasn't all that useful.
It was just visually confirming the trajectory of an attack I already knew was coming anyway.
Even if you dodge that trajectory, the opponent isn't an idiot; they won't just blindly follow through with the same attack.
They could change it mid-swing, meaning it wasn't a cure-all.
Of course, that was only in 1v1 close combat. It would definitely be quite helpful when surrounded by a crowd or facing weapons like guns.
Though whether I could actually see it and dodge would be a matter of my own stats.
That's probably why they gave it as a Level 3 option.
"Not bad."
It's a subjective evaluation, but I consider myself quite good at combat.
The most essential elements of combat:
Don't panic.
Judge calmly.
Act quickly.
Because I believed I possessed all of these.
Proving this, even in combat against actual humans, I had stabbed their vitals without hesitation and killed seven of them.
On top of that, utilizing this would make me at least a little better.
And this wasn't the end.
If I received combat-assisting options at Level 3, then at Level 4 and Level 5, options for more direct hunting would be added.
This raised my expectations for the Safe Base even higher.
The Safe Base, now at Level 4.
"Are they telling me to just live in the Safe Base until I die?"
Every time I wondered if there could be anything else, something new popped up.
Actually, lately, every time I went to the bathroom, the toilet was on my mind.
Right now, the water still flushed because the water and sewage systems hadn't broken down yet, but once the water was cut off and the sewage system was paralyzed, the shit I took could end up backing up.
Similarly, the water I used to wash myself could back up while draining.
Even if water could be magically created from somewhere using the power of an in-game mode, it wouldn't mean much if the wastewater remained.
The same went for trash.
Throwing it outside the house was only a temporary solution.
I hadn't paid much attention to it since I didn't plan on living here forever, but if I ever established a permanent base, I would have to dispose of trash and process food waste.
And now, even those things could be resolved with Coins so I wouldn't have to worry about them at all.
"...At this rate, if I have a kid later, it'll probably raise them automatically too."
Of course, as the services increased, the amount of Coins spent would also increase.
But since it seemed like I would get gradual discounts as my Mode Level increased, I didn't think I needed to worry too much.
[Food Waste Processing System Activated]
[You can put food waste into the sink drain or manually activate food waste processing.]
[Trash Disposal System Activated]
[If you designate a disposal location within the Safe Base and place trash there, it will be automatically disposed of at 00:00.]
[Sewage Disposal System Activated]
[Wastewater and sewage will be automatically disposed of.]
All of these systems consumed Coins as one, making it incredibly cost-effective.
The Safe Base never failed to satisfy me.
The Level 4 options for these two base cheat modes were more indirect effects rather than direct benefits.
As for the Safe Base, as always, options to fortify it had been added.
For Base Invincibility, while stats continued to rise, an option was added to allow other people to receive the benefits alongside me, rather than just myself.
Honestly, this option didn't hold much merit for me.
But that was only when looking at it from the perspective of direct benefits.
Looking at the performance of the mode itself, it was incredible.
"Since it's a multiplayer mode, it's even more broken."
This wasn't a single-player server.
In the end, I had to form a group and live together.
This wasn't a game; it was reality.
So, I had been given the power to protect my people.
Even if their stats didn't increase by 4 levels like mine, a 1-level increase to all stats was bound to be a massive benefit for the "Residents."
On top of that, now that the Safe Base's range had expanded to 200-pyeong, the effect of Base Invincibility could be received over a fairly wide area outside my tiny-ass room.
I immediately registered Kim Ji-hee as a Resident.
["Kim Ji-hee" has been registered as a Resident.]
[Residents: 1 / 10]
"My stats went up!"
"Yeah. They'll stay up as long as you're within the 200-pyeong area."
"What did you do?"
"None of your business."
"Tch."
The end of the 1st Zombie Rush concluded with an absolute jackpot of rewards.
I could celebrate the end right here, but I couldn't do that.
Because the very end was when the most bountiful rewards awaited.
"Are you going out?"
"Yeah. I'm going to fuck you hard when I get back, so wash up and wait for me."
"...Be careful."
Even though I knew she was saying this not out of genuine concern for me, but because she knew I had to stay alive for her own safety, it didn't feel bad.
I pulled Kim Ji-hee close and kissed her.
It seemed like it was the first kiss for both of us. Our tongues tangled awkwardly, but the soft, plump texture of her lips and the sensation of her tongue gave me plenty of pleasure.
Caressing her breasts through a single layer of thin clothing was also more than enough to make my cock stand rock hard.
"I can't hold back. I need to blow a load in your mouth-pussy before I go."
I shoved my dick into the mouth that had been sucking my tongue and lips, and fucked it.
After shooting a load in her mouth, I opened the door and stepped out.
I could already hear the zombies swarming outside.
The final rush had the largest number of zombies, which meant they were basically walking piles of Coins.
Before testing the Level 4 Safe Base and the Hunting Expert Mode, I headed upstairs first.
Since I had left them to clean up, I had to check if they did a good job.