Chapter 1.
Chapter 1.
Inside the cozy camper.
I listen to old jazz through my headphones while drinking coffee I brewed myself.
Delicious coffee and jazz are enough. Enough that I wouldn't mind if the world ended right now.
After a short moment of appreciation, a woman's hand tapped my shoulder and pointed at the watch.
I took off my headphones, put on my backpack, and grabbed my bow and quiver.
I stepped out of the camper and looked at the sky. It was a clear, bright day. The kind of weather those bastards love.
My small drone took to the air. It's a tiny mini-drone. Small, but enough to scout a radius of several kilometers.
The drone, making a wing sound, soared high into the sky according to my controls.
Once the drone climbed high, the noise was barely audible.
I steered the drone forward and scanned the surroundings through the screen.
I could see a few zombies in the distance.
Creepy bastards, standing with their arms spread wide, looking up at the sun with happy smiles.
They all shared the trait of being bald with dark green skin. Furthermore, regardless of gender, they had all ripped off their tops.
They looked like sunflowers, or perhaps rows of crosses.
When there are no people around, they just stand there like that, photosynthesizing.
Maybe because it's downtown Gyeonggi-do, there weren't as many zombies on the streets as I thought.
I verified the route to the target point I'd checked on the map and counted how many zombies were lined up along the way.
There might be zombies inside the buildings, but I can't check everything. And because of their habit of loving the sun, they were often out on the streets or by the windows rather than inside.
After finishing the 5-minute scout, I gave the return command, and the drone began to return via auto-flight.
I put the controller in my small backpack and prepared to depart.
I held my recurve bow in one hand and checked that my quivers, each holding 24 arrows, were properly strapped to my waist and back.
Soon the drone arrived, and I put it in my backpack.
I moved with cautious but quick steps.
And behind me, a young woman carrying a large golf bag followed quietly.
70m away from the zombies.
I stopped, nocked an arrow, and drew. A 60-pound heavy bow.
Using the Mediterranean Draw used in archery, I drew it all the way back, held my breath, and focused on the target, and the flow of time began to slow down.
Hawk's Eye.
It's the ability given to me.
I don't know if the being that gave me this ability is a god or something else, but thanks to it, I've gained marksmanship skills close to that of a divine archer.
The flow of time slows down, and I can see the target's movements in detail.
I feel the flow of the wind, predict the arrow's path, and fire.
The arrow left the string and pierced the zombie's head accurately about a second later.
The bastard collapsed with a soft puck sound.
As it fell with a thud, two zombies nearby looked toward me.
Their happy smiles vanished, and they began to run toward me with crazed expressions. A mad, sprinting speed.
I quickly pulled out an arrow and nocked it. Using the Slavic Draw, which allows for rapid nocking and firing, I launched the arrow as soon as it caught on the bowstring.
Another accurate headshot. I immediately pulled out another arrow.
Because of Hawk's Eye, in the time slowed down every time I aimed, I could aim slowly and fire accurately.
One fell at the 50m mark, and the other also fell with a headshot at the 30m mark.
Because the zombies were sprinting with all their might, they slid forward and sprawled out at the speed they were running.
I pulled out an arrow, nocked it, and walked toward the fallen zombies with quiet but quick steps.
Just then, a loud noise came from inside the building to my front left.
It was the sound of something coming down the stairs like crazy from the upper floors of the building. It was probably because they saw me through the window and heard the noise outside.
Judging by the footsteps, maybe five or six of them?
I climbed onto the roof of a vehicle right next to me, nocked an arrow, and waited.
The bastards rushed out through the building's stairs.
Arrows fired in succession at almost 1-second intervals.
The zombies all fell one by one with headshots.
Their reactions to being hit in the head varied.
One stopped moving as if a string had been cut. One fell while trembling. One stumbled, walked in a weird direction, and then fell.
They're fine even if their limbs are cut off, but eventually, if their brains are smashed, they stop moving completely.
The surroundings became quiet. I guarded the area from the roof of the vehicle and signaled.
Following my signal, the woman following me moved forward quickly.
A woman with long hair tied in a ponytail, wearing a cap pulled down low.
She was wearing the same leather jacket as me and thick jeans.
The way she waited and then rushed out looked like a ball girl picking up tennis balls, and the way she carried the golf bag felt like a caddy.
She pulled the arrows directly from the fallen zombies and collected them one by one.
The arrowheads were just sharp like awls for penetration, so it wasn't difficult to pull them out.
However, the blood and the sight of the corpses that appeared every time she pulled out an arrow were gruesome, but the woman silently and quickly pulled them out.
She put all the pulled-out arrows into the golf bag. Some of the arrows were broken, but she collected them all regardless. They are important materials for repairing and making new ones.
Occasionally, she would search the ones with bulging pockets or backpacks with her hands to see if there were any useful items.
Yeah, actually, she's close to an Automatic Looting Pet. I guard and watch over her while she loots.
After finishing the arrow collection, she approached me and handed me new arrows to replace the ones I'd used.
She was panting slightly.
"Good work."
I opened my mouth quietly as if to praise her.
I met the eyes of the woman under the cap. For a brief moment, her incredible beauty was revealed.
It couldn't be anything but incredible. Because she was once a top idol singer. She wasn't just pretty; she was also famous for her tall height and glamorous figure.
Why is she with me?
I took the arrows from her and put them into the quiver.
And I moved forward again.
The winter before the apocalypse.
Mount Erebus in Antarctica.
It is the southernmost active volcano in the world.
News reports were coming out that Mount Erebus had caused a massive volcanic eruption.
Conversations between the announcer and expert panelists were playing.
"So... the talk about climate change means that as the ancient permafrost melts, ancient viruses inside could be released, right? That means this volcanic eruption could accelerate that."
"I see. Then, as people worry, could things like a zombie virus or other unexpected things come out?"
The expert, responding to the announcer, smiled slightly and said.
"Haha. Zombies only exist in movies. In reality, things that don't rot and keep moving violate the laws of physics. Ah, of course, there are things like cordyceps or toxoplasma that can control living creatures, but..."
On the news screen, the Antarctic volcano was shown causing a massive eruption.
"Rather than worrying about things like zombies, it's more realistic to worry about unexpected new viruses like during COVID."
That winter was cold and short.
It didn't look particularly different from any other time.
But thinking about it, that was definitely the time when the infection started.
My age is 31.
The small-to-medium enterprise I worked for was unknown to anyone, so I had to give a quite long explanation about what kind of company it was.
And I always added an appeal about how much revenue it had and that it had quite a lot of employees. It was a desperate struggle to appeal that it wasn't a shitty small company.
Even so, the salary was small, and the fact that I didn't know when I'd be fired remained unchanged.
Since my mom passed away two years ago, I had no family left.
My mom also lived in a monthly rent house her whole life, so there was no property inherited.
Average looks, average height. Just so-so educational background.
Maybe I should be grateful just to be working at a small but stable company.
At this level, even if I said I gave up on marriage, there wouldn't be anyone to say anything about it.
I liked bows.
Maybe it's because I briefly lived the life of an archery club member in elementary school, but I liked bows from the start.
In games, I especially played archer characters a lot, and in movies, I was very immersed in people shooting bows.
That said, I wasn't an archery athlete, so it was strictly in the realm of a hobby.
My hobby was buying a recurve bow and shooting it occasionally.
A recurve bow is the slightly curved bow that people commonly think of. Since it doesn't have a sight like a competition bow, it's closer to the appearance of a traditional bow.
I would go to a quiet place, set up a wooden board, and shoot to my heart's content.
I liked going to places where there was no one to shoot. I also liked being alone. It relieved my stress and improved my mood.
Since I had a quiet personality and nothing particularly outstanding about me, I naturally kept my distance from people and enjoyed time alone.
The shooting method I learned in archery is the Mediterranean Draw, where you place the arrow on the side of the bow opposite to the drawing hand.
It has high accuracy and can be drawn strongly, but it is not suitable for rapid fire.
Because it takes at least a few seconds to nock one arrow, no matter how fast you are.
When I saw things like movies, I wanted to do rapid fire, nocking and shooting arrows quickly.
I looked it up and found there was something called the Slavic Draw.
It's a method where you place the arrow on the side of the bow where the drawing hand is, and you draw and shoot lightly.
Power and accuracy drop, but the rate of fire definitely goes up.
If you hold 3 arrows in your hand between your fingers and shoot them in succession, you could fire them at intervals of less than a second.
The rapid-fired arrows stuck into the wooden board 20m away.
Games and archery. These were my only hobbies.
I thought I was an unlucky person my whole life.
I didn't particularly resent my parents or the family I was born into as a dirt spoon, but I often thought it would have been nice if we were at least middle class... if my parents had lived a bit longer and things were a bit better.
But I was a lucky person.