Reap What You Sow (1)

“Let’s head back.”

“What?”

“Let’s head back.”

Right after we took down the Holy Crusader, my sister spoke to me with firm determination.

“Oppa, your body’s in bad shape. I gave you first aid, but that’s all it was.”

When she put it like that, I couldn’t exactly tell her to fuck ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠off. Truth was, my condition really wasn’t great. There was a hole punched clean through my hand. My body was covered in cuts, my back throbbed from getting slammed into a wall during Tadol, and I could barely move properly. Nothing seemed broken… but I was far from fine.

“So, rest. The bunker isn’t going anywhere if we don’t search it today… and even if it did, it’s not worth risking your life over.”

She rarely got this resolute, so I couldn’t bring myself to say no. “What about you?”

“I’m going to take care of you, Oppa. You don’t even know how to wrap bandages properly.”

“…Well, I could learn. You could go to the bunker by yourself…”

“I’ll just do it for you, okay?”

Seeing her make that pitiful face, if I’d still been able to push back, I probably wouldn’t have broken my leg as a kid. In the end, we got on the elevator.

Once we left the bunker and reached the penthouse, the place was still deathly quiet. There, the two of us prepared to rest. After a fight that big, resting was the right call.

“Hmm~ Hmm-hmm~”

My sister hummed cheerfully as she pushed me along and wiped down my body.

“Oppa, don’t use your hands. Ah-hyun will do everything for you!”

“That doesn’t mean you follow me into the bathroom.”

“…Huh?”

“…You were going to, weren’t you?”

“Yeah, to hold it for you.”

“You crazy bitch.”

“But Oppa, there’s a hole in your hand. What if it gets infected…”

“Get out. Please.”

“Hng…”

She really was insane. I clicked my tongue and glanced at the blade leaning against the doorframe.

The Holy Crusader’s Sword. The name was pretty straightforward, but the weapon itself looked less like a crusader’s blade and more like a Japanese katana. A long, milky-white blade. It looked thin but wasn’t actually that slender. At the very least, it matched the size of my machete. Below the slightly curved single edge was a hilt and guard made entirely of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bone. It wasn’t too big or too small.

The important part wasn’t the size. It probably had no function beyond keeping the sword from slipping out of the hand, and the Crusader himself had mostly used it to parry or deflect attacks by striking weapons directly. Even then, most of those moves had been offensive rather than defensive. Or perhaps both at once.

It was a little over a meter long. A classic Japanese sword. I hadn’t seen many in real life, but I’d seen plenty in games. This felt like something straight out of a game… something I’d never expected.

Yet it didn’t actually feel like a game item. The system readout might look game-like, but the moment I held it, I knew it was real. It was a sword made of bone. The blade imbued with Thousand Days and Contingency Training carried memories within it. The instant I gripped it, inspiration flooded my mind. Fittingly so.

When I held it, my Heavy Swordsmanship rank had jumped. It only lasted while I gripped the sword, so I couldn’t use it with my machete, but there was no denying how powerful it was. The auto-repair function was incredible too. You never knew when it might snap or lose its edge.

This fight had given me a lot from my mentor.

The most noticeable change was Intelligence, which had been stuck at 1 until now. I’d wondered if my actual IQ would physically increase, but the effect was similar yet subtly different. My thought patterns remained the same. My ideas were unchanged, and it hadn’t affected my personality. Instead, it felt like my brain’s specs had been upgraded. Calculations were faster. Thinking was quicker, and my memory had improved. Childhood memories felt more vivid. But that was it.

Since I didn’t have much knowledge stored up, the change wasn’t that dramatic. If I’d been a diligent student like my sister, it might have been different, but for a delinquent like me who thought cult school was bullshit, it was useless. I probably wouldn’t invest any more points into Intelligence. Bluntly put, it had no value to me.

It had given me a new recipe for Synthesis, but if that was all, it was trash to me. From now on, any stat points I gained should either go into raising Plunder or be saved for the Shop.

Plunder was my main engine of growth, obviously. But the Shop… yeah, it was worth it.

Things you’d only see in games. Items I couldn’t even be sure existed in reality. And yet, in this fucked-up world, they were still powerful military equipment. Buying any of these groundbreaking items required an astronomical number of stat points, but if I had the points, I could purchase them.

Some had astronomical prices, others didn’t, but I had no intention of buying anything cheap. There was no guarantee I’d get the temporary Shop skill again. It didn’t seem like it would be offered to my sister multiple times either. Killing the Cult Leader or another zombie like him to steal it again? The odds were low.

So I had to make this one purchase opportunity count. What I was after was something especially expensive—something that could completely change our way of life. Something that would greatly aid our survival, drastically alter our circumstances, or serve as an emergency trump card for when things went to hell.

For example, the vaccine. I could feel that with Strength at 15 I had already surpassed human limits, but that didn’t make me invincible. If a zombie bit me the wrong way, I’d still die. If my mentor—the Cult’s greatest swordsman, the Holy Crusader—had been wielding a blade smeared with zombie blood and filth, I wouldn’t be getting pampered by my sister right now. I’d either be biting her or lying on the ground with a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bullet through my head.

So the vaccine was worth considering. First I needed to gather the points, but even that was something to think about carefully.

A new function unlocked as Plunder leveled up. Full Plunder. It sounded like I could now plunder Basic and Intermediate skills without cooldown. If I wanted, I could kill every person or zombie I came across and farm their skills. No matter how strong I became, I still couldn’t picture myself beating that snake bastard, but as the saying went, every little bit helps. Since I had no idea which skills would prove useful for survival, collecting as many Intermediate skills as possible without cooldown seemed like the right move.

The problem was where to get them…

“Oppa~”

That was something to think about later. I needed to recover first if I wanted to do anything. I turned my head belatedly.

“Oppa~?”

My sister was deliberately calling me in that cute, nasal voice. When our eyes met, she beamed brightly.

Neither of us was wearing a swimsuit. We’d both come in to wash, so there was no reason to. I kept my perforated right hand out of the water, sitting lazily in the tub as I stared at her.

“Oppa, Oppa, Oppa, Oppa, Opp—”

I reached out with my left hand and grabbed her face. Kang Ahyeon, cheeks squished like a fish, puckered her lips and planted little kisses on my palm.

“Ugh, gross.”

When I pulled my hand away, she grinned again.

“Oppa.”

“What.”

“I’m going to wash your legs. Stand up.”

My legs, huh. I doubted she only planned to wash my legs. Was she a real pervert? Or did she just think the dirtiest parts needed extra cleaning? I hesitated for a moment, then made an excuse.

“I think my leg’s broken.”

“Huh, really? Are you okay? Wait, let me see your leg—”

“It was a lie. A lie. Can’t even make a joke anymore.”

“What the heck, you scared me!”

Watching her smile like that, I let out a sigh. I wasn’t thrilled, but there was no helping it. As I stood up, she knelt down.

“Excuse me~”

We didn’t have bath towels. For days now we’d only used body wash. We’d squeeze some out, rub it between our hands, and wash each other. Without her, I would’ve had a hard time washing alone, but whether it was lucky or not, she barged into the bathroom every single time I tried to clean myself. She’d burst in during showers, during baths. She even barged in while I was sleeping.

Like we were making up for all the days we couldn’t wash, we cleaned ourselves every single day. Honestly, it felt refreshing, and Kang Ahyeon loved bathing anyway. Today was no different.

Kang Ahyeon began scrubbing my body. With soft hands drenched in body wash, she touched me directly.

“…Hey, you crazy bitch. Where are you touching?”

“Hm? This part needs to be cleaned too. It’s the dirtiest spot.”

“Even if it’s dirty, there are places you shouldn’t touch. Get your hand off.”

“No! Oppa’s a patient right now. Stay still. You can’t wash yourself anyway.”

“One of my hands works just fine, you know?”

“Still no. That hand needs to pet Ah-hyun’s head.”

“…You want me to pet your head while it’s wet?”

She was impossible to understand. As always. When I let out a dry laugh and stroked her hair, she burst ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠into giggles.

“Perverted bitch.”

“Call me a good girl.”

“Perverted bitch.”

“I hate you. Oppa’s a dummy.”

Even when she said it with that bright smile, it wasn’t convincing at all. I chuckled dryly and sat back down in the tub, my body covered in foam. She climbed on top of me, and I tried not to think about the feeling of her soapy skin pressing against mine.

“Good perverted bitch.”

Well, being a pervert was still better than being an unbelievable psychopath. Even I didn’t feel any particular regret about our parents’ deaths, so maybe she was just doing whatever it took to survive. The same went for all the people we’d killed to get here.

But suddenly a thought occurred to me. How far would I be willing to go? Could I kill innocent people in the name of survival? If so, wasn’t I any different from those bastards who ate people or the scum who preyed on others?

The thought didn’t last long. I’d never liked questions that had no answers. Things would work out somehow. Instead, I thought about the bunker. The bunker that still had supplies left. The variant and the Holy Crusader lying dead inside it. Maybe I should look for ammunition on the survivors the Crusader—who could even deflect rifle rounds—had killed—

“Oh.”

“Hm?”

“Holy shit.”

“W-what? What’s wrong?”

“Fuck, I’m actually brain-dead, aren’t I?”

My sister looked flustered. Still pressed against me, her eyes were wide with confusion. But I couldn’t pay attention to her right now. The sudden flash of realization that hit me pushed everything else aside.

“I only just thought of this. I really am brain-dead. Why the hell didn’t I think of it sooner?”

“W-what… what is it…?”

“The Holy Crusader!”

“The Holy Crusader…?”

I should’ve put points into Intelligence. Leaving my confused sister behind, I clutched my head and let out a dry laugh.

“Hey, get dressed. We’re going back to the bunker.”

“The bunker? Why all of a sudden? We should wait until your body’s fully recovered before exploring—”

“It’s not that. I just…”

I’d left something behind. Something that would be incredibly useful. I shot up from the tub.

……

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