The Grown Dohyun
When Kang Dohyun woke in the morning, the first thing he saw was Han Haeri sleeping beside him.
'Wow.'
Even in sleep, she was beautiful.
'She really is pretty.'
She was a sex slave beautiful enough that the bandit gang had specially selected her to keep around. And besides that—
'She was good in bed too.'
Her tightness was quite something. That was why so many lawless men had taken turns keeping her. Recalling last night, Dohyun felt his lower body stir again, but he pushed it aside.
'Not in the morning. Save my stamina.'
He got out of bed.
Stepping into the kitchen, he found his younger brother bustling about.
"Hyung, you're up."
"You're making breakfast?"
"Yeah."
Since Dohun had already prepared the morning meal, Dohyun went to check their gear and backpacks—only for his brother to beat him to it.
"Equipment check and backpack inspection are done too."
"Oh?"
Dohun had woken early and finished all the preparations.
Dohyun sat at the table and pulled out a map. It showed the routes they'd traveled so far and the paths ahead, with keywords noting the characteristics of each area.
"Dohun, what's our next move?"
Dohyun had already planned out their route and schedule, but he always ran it by his brother before deciding.
At his older brother's question, Dohun came over and studied the map.
"So we're here right now?"
"Yeah."
The area they were in was a small village beside a national highway that followed the Geum River.
"If we head east, there's a fork."
One road went north to Sejong, the other south to Daejeon. Sejong was a region the government and military had secured relatively early on. Daejeon, meanwhile, had some northern areas under government control, but the rest was overrun with so many zombies that it was extremely difficult for people to operate there.
As the brothers discussed, the room's door opened.
"Are you up?"
"Yes, we're up."
Out came Han Haeri—completely naked. Yet she showed no embarrassment at all.
She was a woman who had endured the worst possible experience within just six weeks of the apocalypse. Her mindset had changed. Showing her naked body to a man she'd just met no longer bothered her.
Well, honestly, she did feel a little hesitant. But Dohyun was strong and treated her like a human being, which she liked. So she was deliberately acting this way.
Dohun was slightly flustered by her naked appearance, though he didn't show it. She caught the scent of cooking and asked,
"Breakfast prep? Should I do it?"
"You cook well?"
"Just leave it to me."
"Then go ahead."
With Dohyun's permission, Han Haeri tied an apron over her naked body and began cooking.
As she worked, Dohun circled back to the core of their earlier discussion.
"But isn't our destination Daejeon?"
"Daejeon is the goal. But our levels are a bit low."
The dungeon in Daejeon was indeed their objective, but Dohyun judged that they needed a bit more growth first. On the way down from Osan, he had yielded most of the experience to his brother to help him grow.
"I'm at level 17 right now. I think we should push to 20 and get a new trait before heading out."
Reaching level 20 granted a new trait, and he proposed they grow stronger with it before moving on.
"Fine. But we can't level up in Sejong."
"We'll do it around here."
He gestured slightly toward Han Haeri, who was still cooking.
"We've got a cook here too, so we can make this our temporary base."
He pointed to Gongju City on the western side of the map.
"We'll level up in Gongju."
Gongju was a city with a decent population—meaning a decent number of zombies. It was a good hunting ground.
While the two brothers discussed their hunting strategy, Han Haeri finished breakfast.
"For breakfast, I've prepared rice with ham kimchi stir-fry and tuna pancakes."
She had prepared the morning meal, and the brothers began eating.
"Huh? This is pretty good?"
It was just ordinary ham kimchi stir-fry and tuna pancakes, but the seasoning was surprisingly well done and the flavor was there.
Dohun ate with obvious enjoyment, but his older brother showed no reaction at all.
"How is it? Is it okay?"
Haeri finally had to ask herself. He replied,
"You made it with ham, kimchi, and tuna. Of course it's delicious."
"Aigoo, really!"
Haeri pressed herself right up against the impassive Dohyun and began cooing at him, but he said,
"You're being way too flirtatious. Is this your style? It's too obvious."
"Do you not like it? I want Dohyun-ssi to like me?"
Haeri was openly seductive. They had had sex multiple times the night before, and thanks to Dohun's trait Reasonable Rapist, she had developed a considerable fondness for him.
She was a beautiful woman, wearing nothing but an apron over her naked body, with an openly seductive expression and tone. Dohyun had plenty of experience with this sort of thing, but his younger brother looked awkward.
"You're better at it in bed."
"Tch..."
She was quick to read the situation. Judging that this kind of seduction was pointless right now, she pulled away slightly from Dohyun's side.
"Dohun, let's head to Gongju after breakfast."
"Got it."
The two brothers ate heartily, preparing for the grueling hunt ahead.
Before they left after breakfast—
"Haeri-ssi, you'll have to survive on your own while we're gone."
He was worried about leaving her alone, but she nodded.
"We've taken care of most of the lawless people nearby, so nothing major should happen. Still, be careful."
"Still, please come back often."
She said it with earnest eyes, but—
'Sorry, but my leveling up comes first.'
Dohyun was cold. Still, he gave a pleasant farewell on the surface, and the brothers left the village chief's house.
From the small village to Gongju was a one-hour walk. The two brothers walked hard, and soon Gongju City came into view.
"Hyung, is our target Gongju University?"
"Yeah. If we enter other areas, we'll have to fight lawless people."
Fighting lawless people earned lots of zombie coins, but no experience. Right now, killing lots of zombies was what mattered.
"Let's clear the outskirts and move in slowly."
Gongju University, located within the city, was where the most zombies had gathered in this small town.
The two brothers carefully moved toward the university, preparing to hunt the zombies there.
Thirteen days later.
There were truly a lot of zombies on the Gongju University campus.
But through sustained hunting operations, the two brothers had already cleared about thirty percent of the zombies on campus.
Dohyun and Dohun entered the third floor of the Natural Sciences building, where university students had once studied.
'Twenty-three in the hallway.'
At his older brother's hand signal, Dohun nodded. The moment they rounded the corner—
'Thwip, thwack! Thwip, thwack!'
Both brothers fired their crossbows almost simultaneously.
"Guh!"
Aside from the zombies they'd already dropped, the rest lunged toward the brothers.
More than twenty zombies approached, but Dohyun and Dohun showed no fear.
'Thwip, thwack!'
Dohyun used his crossbow to pick off zombies one by one from a distance, while Dohun—
"Down!"
'Thwack!'
—charged in with his axe, striking each zombie and retreating. Their coordination was flawless.
As Dohun killed zombies up close one at a time, Dohyun eliminated the other zombies approaching him from afar.
And as they killed more and more zombies—
Dohyun had finally reached level 20.
They had cleared all the zombies on the third floor.
"Dohun, pause for a moment. There are no more zombies on this floor."
Dohyun signaled his brother to stop, and the two entered an empty lecture hall they had just cleared.
"I hit level 20. Let me check for a moment."
"Congrats. I'll collect bolts and loot the bodies."
While his brother looted the corpses of the dead zombies, Dohyun waited for the next message.
'Why is the next message taking so long?'
About a minute passed before the next message appeared.
'Twelfth. A bit later than I expected.'
It was a somewhat disappointing achievement, but—
'At least it's an achievement. The effect is small, but it's still an achievement.'
What mattered was what came next. So he waited a moment for the following message.
Congratulations. You have acquired the trait "Drone".
'Drone?'
The new trait he'd received upon reaching level 20 was Drone. And this trait too—
'I've never seen this one before.'
Both the trait he'd gotten at level 10, One Strike, and the one at level 20, Drone, were traits he had never encountered before. He checked the trait description.
'What is this?'
It was an ability to summon a drone by consuming stamina. A drone capable of carrying one person.
"Holy crap..."
Dohyun couldn't stop grinning. He had acquired a trait far beyond his expectations.