Making Landfall
Kang Dohyun climbed into the rubber boat and began to row.
Thwack… splash. Thwack… splash.
The uninhabited island he'd been staying on was only ten minutes from the mainland by motorboat, but rowing by hand, it took nearly thirty minutes before land came into view.
Slowly. Carefully.
Thankfully, the nearby beach was clear of both zombies and people. Dohyun made his landing with extreme caution.
Let's hide it here.
He left the boat in a wooded area beside the beach that he'd scouted out beforehand, then draped a poncho over it to conceal it. Once it was hidden perfectly, he relaxed and surveyed his surroundings.
Flame Pension.
A large pension near the beach — that was Dohyun's first target.
The Flame Pension was a sizable establishment capable of hosting nine groups of guests at once. Dohyun circled the perimeter with painstaking care, checking the area with his Presence Detection trait.
No survivors in the pension. Just twenty-one zombies.
The zombies had attacked everyone, turning them all. No survivors remained.
Dohyun considered this a good thing and prepared for combat. He set down the backpack on his back, donned a tough leather outer coat, pulled on leather gloves, and secured a safety helmet and goggles. He drew his weapons: a crossbow and an axe.
I need to conserve bolts as much as possible.
Arrows were for emergencies, so he gripped the axe in both hands and headed toward the pension's outer edge.
"Grrr…" A male zombie stood there, making a strange sound.
Back away slowly.
Dohyun carefully moved behind the zombie's field of vision, then swung the axe.
Whack… thud!
"Kyeak!"
The axe embedded precisely in the zombie's head, smashing it apart, and the creature collapsed.
Huh. One hit.
Thanks to the weapon's high attack power, the effects of his exercise regimen, and striking from behind, he'd felled the zombie in a single blow.
You have eliminated a zombie.
You have gained 1 EXP. You have acquired 1 Zombie Coin.
Your level has increased.
Congratulations. You have acquired your first skill: Strong Strike.
Messages cascaded before his eyes, but Dohyun calmly retrieved his weapon and scanned the area.
Thankfully, I didn't draw the attention of the other zombies.
His Presence Detection confirmed no zombies were approaching, so he relaxed.
Having completed his first hunt, Dohyun could clearly feel the effects of having been chosen by the God of Exercise.
I heard physical abilities would improve, but this is completely different.
It wasn't just strength and agility that had improved — his reflexes, quickness, and every aspect of his motor nerves had all sharpened.
As expected, investing time in exercise early on was a good choice.
With that conclusion, he finally checked the messages from his first kill.
1 EXP and 1 Zombie Coin.
That was the standard reward for killing an ordinary zombie.
Level 2, and my first skill is Strong Strike.
He examined the newly acquired skill.
Nice. Very nice.
It was a skill that increased the damage of basic attacks — a passive skill built on top of his powerful physical strength.
Is this also an effect of exercise?
Before his regression, the first skill he'd ever received had been related to running away. Now, a passive skill that boosted attack power had appeared instead.
As expected, it was the result of a week of hard training.
Dohyun wiped the blood from his axe with a cloth, feeling satisfied, then checked the area again with Presence Detection.
Let's clean this up quickly.
His immediate goal was to eliminate all twenty remaining zombies in the pension.
To hunt the next zombie, he headed toward a small camping area in front of the pension.
"Grrr… grrr…" Three zombies were there.
I could handle all three at once in close combat, but let's do this safely.
Dohyun drew the crossbow from his back, set down the axe for a moment, and loaded a bolt onto the bowstring.
Click.
A small sound. Thankfully, the stupid zombies didn't notice.
Start with the one in front.
Thwip!
The bolt flew and embedded itself precisely in the zombie's head.
Thud!
"!"
As the first zombie fell, the heads of nearby zombies turned toward Dohyun.
"Kyeaak!"
Two zombies charged at him. Dohyun set the crossbow on the ground, grabbed his axe, and ran to meet them.
Thud!
He smashed the head of the first zombie in a single blow.
"Kyeak!"
He dodged the second zombie's hand attack, then followed through with his next move.
Thud!
He smashed the second zombie's head as well.
Oh! This is great!
One precise attack meant one zombie eliminated. Part of this was due to Dohyun's calm response, but it was also thanks to the Strong Strike skill.
All that exercise without sleep for a week really paid off.
Even as he thought this, his hands quickly retrieved the bolt from the zombie's head, and he gathered up his crossbow and axe.
Move to the next area.
He confirmed through Presence Detection that zombies were moving toward the noise, and he relocated quickly.
Dohyun's zombie hunt at the pension continued in a similar pattern. He targeted the zombies furthest apart first — taking one out with the crossbow from a distance, then quickly handling the others in close combat before moving on.
After an hour of hunting, he had eliminated every zombie in the pension.
Thud!
"Kyeak!"
When the final twenty-first zombie fell, Dohyun let out a sigh of relief.
"Hoo…" He'd killed countless zombies before his regression, but hunting them at such a low level after returning made him tense and tired.
Glug, glug.
He rehydrated first, then ate a chocolate bar to replenish his calories.
After a brief rest, Dohyun opened his status window.
He'd reached level 3 by eliminating three zombies at the end. Along with the level-up, an additional skill had appeared.
This is really amazing.
Skills didn't appear every time you leveled up — they required special conditions to be met. In Dohyun's case, he had two achievements and had trained hard for a week, so a skill appeared with each level-up.
And they're all good skills.
If Strong Strike was a passive skill that increased attack power, Axe Mastery was a passive skill that boosted attack power when using an axe.
Both were excellent foundational skills that increased attack power.
I'll have to keep using the axe.
The axe had been a weapon he'd only planned to use in the early stages, but now that a skill had appeared for it, the axe had become Dohyun's primary weapon.
After checking his status window, Dohyun began to clean up the pension. He threw all the zombie corpses into the sea — the pension was built on a seaside cliff, making it the most convenient disposal method.
Then he entered the forest right next to the pension.
This is the spot.
He dug at the ground where there were faint signs of excavation, and a large box emerged from beneath.
When Dohyun had prepared for the apocalypse, he hadn't stored all his supplies on the uninhabited island.
Items he would need after landing on the mainland had been placed in this box.
It's safe.
Thankfully, no one had touched the box. Dohyun took additional supplies from it, closed it again, and hid it in nearby bushes.
Back at the pension, Dohyun opened a can of canned food, ate a light lunch, and spread out a map.
The map had various markings, and his first objective was clearly noted.
First, let's go to Pureun University nearby.
His first destination was Pureun University, a local university in the area.
Pureun University was a small university nearby. It was a specialized institution, so it didn't have as many students as a general university, but it was still a university — a place where a considerable number of people gathered, by provincial standards.
Dohyun left the pension and climbed onto a small hill beside it.
Good view.
From here, he could see the entire university, so he began observing the campus through a high-powered telescope.
As expected.
The university was chaos through the telescope. Students were barricaded inside the main building, and zombies were swarming around, trying to force their way in.
About half the students had already turned into zombies, and the remaining students were struggling to keep the horde from entering the building.
As time passes, they'll find it hard to hold out.
The situation looked hopeless. The students were only defending — they weren't counterattacking. Just holding the line wouldn't be enough.
After confirming the situation, Dohyun slowly packed his gear and set off.
He walked around the perimeter of Pureun University in silence.
A lot of zombies have gathered around the university buildings.
The surviving students had barricaded themselves inside the university buildings to stay alive, and the noise had drawn zombies that now swarmed the area.
So there are fewer zombies around the edges. But instead…
While there were fewer zombies on the outskirts, other living beings — humans — were gradually appearing on his Presence Detection.
When the apocalypse began, many people turned into zombies, and the university fell into chaos. Surviving students gathered to fight the zombies, but some people had stayed isolated in their one-room apartments or dorm rooms, refusing to come out.
Dohyun confirmed where these isolated people were located.
After completing his perimeter sweep, Dohyun set his first objective.
First, infiltrate the women's dormitory.
His target was women.