Dexterity
"Um... that arm..."
"Let's go quickly."
But Sanks... your arm!!!
"Yep."
The hunter's stride grew wider and wider.
It was dark, and with the bike helmet on, I couldn't see her face.
Was her face turning red?
'If you wanted reinforcements, you could've just asked me.'
The way she'd sloppily slapped duct tape all over it was a bit annoying.
"That's not how you're supposed to do that..."
"W-what?!"
The hunter turned around, clearly flustered.
Oops.
I'd accidentally spoken my thoughts out loud.
Looking more closely, the magazine was taped all the way up to her elbow.
'That'll definitely get in the way when she moves.'
This wouldn't do.
"Miss, come over here for a second."
"W-why?"
"It'll only take a moment."
We went back into the restaurant we'd just left.
I shone my flashlight on the hunter's arm.
"Doesn't it feel uncomfortable when you move your arm?"
She stayed silent for a moment at my question.
Then she nodded.
Just as I thought.
"Would it be okay if I reinforced it properly for you?"
She nodded again.
She must've been embarrassed, because she only nodded instead of speaking.
In truth, reinforcing armor by yourself was pretty difficult for beginners.
As for me?
I'd practiced alone at home, so I was pretty good at it.
It was a little embarrassing, though.
'Hmm, it'd be nice if I could cleanly remove all that duct tape and junk.'
It would've been easier if I used my subspace backpack.
But I couldn't just lend her mine, could I?
What if she got the wrong idea?
"For now, could you remove everything you've already reinforced?"
Just in case the hunter was also carrying a subspace backpack.
She nodded.
Pop!
'As expected! It really was a subspace backpack.'
The duct tape and random junk disappeared cleanly.
There was still a bit of adhesive left, but that couldn't be helped.
"Give me your arm."
The hunter cautiously extended her arm.
I first wrapped thick packing vinyl around it.
'Unlike my leather jacket, this might be an item, so...'
It'd be a waste if it got dirty.
I layered a magazine on top of that.
Then added extra reinforcement with fan wire.
"Now the other arm."
She silently extended her other hand again.
'What are you, a tsundere cat?'
After finishing the left arm as well,
I pointed at a chair.
"Sit here for a moment."
She hesitated briefly before finally sitting down.
I crouched in front of her.
"Leg."
"I-I'm fine with that part."
"Since we're doing this, we might as well do it properly. Your life could depend on it."
She stayed silent as if thinking it over,
then timidly extended one leg.
I wrapped that leg with vinyl too.
'This time, maybe I'll use leather and plastic plates?'
The hunter was strong, but her build was nothing compared to an adult man's.
It'd be better to set it up lightly so it wouldn't hinder her movement as much as possible.
I sewed together leather scraps I'd taken from the clothing store,
then wrapped them around her leg and secured them with duct tape.
I attached a plastic plate to cover just the shin area.
'Even I have to admit this looks great. Isn't this basically a perfect shin guard?'
It would definitely be much lighter than the magazine.
The hunter seemed fascinated too, leaning forward to watch.
"Other leg."
She flinched!
Startled by my words, the hunter straightened her back and extended her other leg.
'This is getting embarrassing for me too.'
Even though she was wearing a thick leather suit, touching a woman's arms and legs felt strangely weird.
"There! All done, miss."
She shot up from her seat as if she'd been waiting for this moment,
then bowed deeply.
After that, she immediately left the store.
'Ah, my throat's dry.'
I took off my helmet and was chugging a can of soda when—
Dexterity
Passive skill that grants a bonus to precision work using the hands.
"Whaaaaat?!?!"
Another skill?
Is this even allowed?
At this rate, I'm going to become way too strong.
But three skills in a single run? Is that even possible?
For now, I read the skill description.
Dexterity was a passive skill that provided a bonus to precision work using the hands.
'This is amazing.'
It looked like it would be useful in all sorts of ways.
Not only for reinforcing armor, but also for things like lockpicking.
'Now that I have the skill, it'd feel weird to redo the reinforcement right away...'
Plus, touching a stranger woman's arms and legs felt a bit perverted.
Even if it was true.
It'd be better to reinforce it again once I gathered better materials.
Peek.
The hunter who'd gone outside poked just her head back in and looked at me.
Did she come back because I'd shouted?
"It's nothing. Let's go."
She nodded.
We headed back toward Hongje Station.
It was time to head up to the second floor.
"Can we stop by the exit for a moment?"
I needed to check if the exit capacity had reset.
She nodded.
[18/18]
But contrary to my hopes, it hadn't reset.
"The capacity doesn't reset."
"It probably never will."
"You checked it before too, miss?"
She nodded.
"It was like that until the third day."
"What?"
Did she really stay on the first floor for three whole days?
Was she built for the apocalypse or something?
The opposite turnstile, unlike the exit, was glowing red.
"If we go through together, we'll both end up on the second floor, right?"
Even though I'd looked up information about the tower and hunters, I didn't know much about the second floor.
Most of the publicly released hunter videos were from the first floor.
"Probably?"
Probably?
Did that mean we might get matched to different places?
"You don't know either, miss?"
"No. I've never gone up with someone else before."
"Um, miss... you're not planning to abandon me, right?"
"I'll consider it if you stop calling me 'miss' first."
Then just tell me your name!
"Then... what should I..."
She paused for a moment.
"My name is Yu Sia."
She finally revealed her name.
It really wasn't easy to hear this woman's name.
"Understood, Sia noona."
"Drop the noona."
"Yes, Sia-ssi."
"That's better."
Maybe because I was such an open person,
it looked like Yu Sia was smiling faintly under her bike helmet.
'Ah, this isn't the time for that.'
I'd been staring blankly without realizing it.
I pointed beyond the turnstile.
"Let's go through at the same time."
She nodded.
But before that.
"What is it?"
I held out my hand.
"Just in case."
Yu Sia looked at me like I was ridiculous.
"No, I don't mean anything weird by it."
We could hold hands while crossing, right?
What if we went separately and got matched to different places?
"Haa."
Instead of taking my hand, Yu Sia placed a rope in it.
"This is fine, right?"
"Y-yeah."
We crossed the turnstile at the same time.
Instantly, everything was enveloped in red light.
Ding.
A push notification rang, so I checked it.
"What is this?"
"It's the inter-floor shop."
Yu Sia, who'd been quietly watching, explained.
"I thought the shop could only be used outside the tower?"
I'd heard that hunters used an app-linked shop, but...
"You can also use it before moving to the next floor."
If you could use the shop inside the tower too, wouldn't that increase farming efficiency?
"They don't give you good prices, so just sell anything you don't need. You can repair stuff too."
"Got it."
I first pressed the cash collection button.
Will you convert your held cash?
A message popped up, so I selected yes.
There was no point carrying it around anyway.
Immediately, my bag felt lighter.
'That's convenient.'
I also sold the items I didn't need.
Points started to accumulate.
I could buy things with the points, but nothing particularly useful caught my eye, so I skipped it.
Instead, I repaired my equipment.
'Cash collection and repairs were the important parts.'
Even the black blood on my hand axe was wiped clean.
"Let's head up now."
"Yep."
Right after I answered, the countdown ended.
Vrrrr.
The place we were transported to was inside a subway station elevator.
Clunk.
The doors opened immediately without any wait.
Zombie corpses were scattered around, showing that someone had already passed through.
Tap tap.
Yu Sia tapped my shoulder and moved ahead first.
I followed behind her, slipping into the darkness.
Between the densely packed buildings,
we found a cosmetics store that wasn't blocked by shutters or wooden planks.
When Yu Sia tried to enter first, I tapped her shoulder.
When she turned her head as if asking what was wrong,
I signaled with my hands: 'I'll go in first.'
She nodded.
"Grrrrk."
"Grk."
"Grrrr."
I used my echo sonar to locate the zombies first.
'Behind the counter, next to the display shelf, in front of the warehouse door.'
I crept toward the counter.
Crunch!――
Just as expected, I caught the one trying to lunge at me
and carefully lowered it to the ground.
Next was the display shelf.
Crack!―
In front of the warehouse.
Thud!―
'Clear.'
I went back to Yu Sia.
"All cleaned up. Let's go in."
She stared at me silently for a moment.
Then nodded.
I was starting to get used to this reaction too.
"The zombies didn't react at all..."
Rarely, Yu Sia spoke first.
"It's thanks to my Stealthy Strike skill."
"Ah."
She seemed to understand just from the skill name and didn't ask any more.
I turned on my phone and checked the map first.
The surrounding terrain felt somehow familiar.
'Is this Euljiro Entrance Station? Then this is Myeongdong?'
This might be a little despair-inducing.
The population density here was insanely high, and there weren't many places to hide or do parkour.
In the center, there were even massive department stores and hotels that were practically demon lairs.
'First, the exit!'
But the map didn't show any exit locations.
'What? Why isn't there one?'
When I asked Yu Sia,
"On the second floor, exits open randomly at set intervals."
"Ah, so we can't leave right away?"
"Correct."
I knew it was different from the first floor, but I didn't expect it to be this bad.
"Also, the exits on the second floor can only be used by a set number of people."
"How many?"
"That's random too. So is the duration the exit stays open."
"Then does that mean we might have to compete with other hunters for the exit?"
"Yes."
Damn it.
So basically,
you had to hide carefully and hold out,
and even if you barely reached a randomly generated exit,
if you were slower than the other hunters, you couldn't escape?
Still, I was pretty lucky.
I was with Yu Sia, who was familiar with the second floor.
"Sia-ssi, do you have a plan?"
At my question, Yu Sia thought for a moment.
"First, let's join up with other hunters."
"That sounds good."
"But I don't see any good meeting spots."
"Where do people usually meet?"
"They usually gather at the place that looks safest. The second floor is quite dangerous, after all."
So they form groups to farm together?
Then how do they decide on the escape numbers?
"But this area is packed with buildings everywhere, and there aren't any good hiding spots..."
Plus, Myeongdong was an area with heavy foot traffic.
Since zombie density increased in proportion to foot traffic, it was even more dangerous.
That was why we'd run into fifteen of them just on the way here.
"So we can only hope to run into them naturally?"
"That's right."
If I'd come up here alone?
Just thinking about it was horrifying.
Good thing I mustered up the courage to talk to her back then.
"Let's use this place as our base and start clearing the surroundings."
"Yep. But before that, how about we eat first?"
I was planning to get a boost before fighting anyway.
"Sure."
I was taking out some simple snacks when—
'Huh?'
Yu Sia had taken out a mini camping burner.
Then, as if making an excuse,
"If we're going to eat, we should eat properly."
With that, she even took out a water bottle and a kettle and started boiling water.
I took out some ramen from my backpack and set it up.
Enough for Yu Sia too.
We decided to eat separately.
Well, she probably didn't want to show her face.
Slurp, slurp.
After neatly finishing the last bite,
gulp, gulp.
I drank the ramen broth too.
'I never thought I'd be boiling ramen inside the tower.'
This was only possible because the zombies couldn't smell it.
'Wait a second...'
An idea suddenly flashed through my mind.
"Sia-ssi, you're not going to drink any more of the ramen broth, right?"
"Hm? No, but why?"
"I have a use for it."
Yu Sia stared at me intently, as if suspicious.
"No, I'm not planning to use it for anything weird."
I hurriedly took out my tumbler and poured the ramen broth into it.
Hmm.
I'm not trying to collect it as merch or anything?
"Then what are you going to do with it..."
Ah, maybe I should've explained first.
"It's not that. I'm going to use it to find other hunters."
"How?"
"Zombies can't smell, right?"
"That's true."
"So we'll spray ramen broth everywhere we go."
"Ah."
There wasn't a single Korean who couldn't recognize the smell of ramen.
If they wanted to join us, they'd follow the smell.
"It's not a bad idea... but if that's the case, we might as well use this."
Yu Sia took out some perfume.
Yeah, perfume would probably be better than ramen broth.
Ramen broth was a bit too strong.
With that, our task was decided.