Hospital Raid: Myeongseo Comprehensive Hospital
Myeongseo Comprehensive Hospital, where she worked, was a fairly large facility located in Myeongseo-dong, just as its name suggested. It even had a separate cancer center despite its modest size, making it no exaggeration to call it one of Gucheon City's flagship hospitals.
Guess that's why there are so damn many of them.
It wasn't yet at the level of some zombie movie or drama hospital—extraordinarily hazardous or a complete hellscape—but the sheer filthy swarm of zombies was hell enough on its own. Just the ones visible in the first-floor lobby numbered in the hundreds. If they really started gathering, it'd easily surpass a thousand.
I'm not farming the whole hospital anyway.
Once Jeong Da-jeong's inventory capacity grew, I might swing back to rip out equipment and fixtures, but not today. Our goal was strictly medicine.
I'm sweeping every last bit.
I had no idea how many doctors had survived in this city, but without meds, all they could manage was basic first aid. And in a shitshow of a city like this, any situation needing a doctor couldn't be handled with neighborhood clinic pills or over-the-counter drugs.
If they had skills, maybe, but...
At least from what I knew, jobs with healing skills that could treat wounds without meds were rare, and those only came way later. Even then, they used them alongside medicine for efficiency, not out of stubborn reliance on skills alone. Point was, meds were essential no matter what.
The issue was snagging those meds safely from amid that zombie horde. Dok Sa-yeon had the answer.
"Each department and OR has basic meds stocked, but most drugs and IV fluids are stored in the main building's B1 pharmacy compounding room and warehouse."
She sketched a quick map of the hospital interior with her pen. A circular main building, then a line next to it for a smaller structure connected by a line labeled Emergency Medical Center.
"To get to the pharmacy, you usually take the main building elevators or stairs. But when they separated the Emergency Medical Center into its own annex, they built an underground passage from the ER to grab meds on the fly—or so the messengers said."
A line extended from the ER to the main building's pharmacy, with a small note: B1 Underground Passage.
"So we just go through the ER to the pharmacy."
"...There's a problem. There are more connections to the main building. This long one to the first floor, and..."
A much larger, longer aboveground passage appeared over the underground one, followed by another short straight line.
"There's a skybridge on the third floor too. It was under construction with fencing, but I saw workers passing through, so zombies won't have trouble crossing."
She drew arrows from the main building toward the aboveground passage and skybridge.
"Zombies'll hear the noise and swarm, right?"
"...The distance should make it fine if we just grab the ER meds and bail."
She gazed at me with anxious eyes. She hadn't said a word, but Dok Sa-yeon had been terrified since I announced the hospital raid.
"I'll handle that. How long to load up and get out?"
"ER to pharmacy is quick. Depends on how much Da-jeong's inventory can hold at once...?"
Dok Sa-yeon glanced at Jeong Da-jeong.
"One sec. Boxes, boxes..."
Bzzzzz-
Jeong Da-jeong pulled a massive box from her inventory—the kind dubbed a "moving house box." A size-12 for bedding and big items.
"Hmm, about 12 or 13 of these. And with this..."
She patted the large backpack on her back.
"That makes roughly 14 boxes' worth?"
"...Da-jeong's amazing."
"Ahahat, it's nothing..."
"Anyway, how long?"
Dok Sa-yeon pondered, eyeing the crestfallen Da-jeong, then spoke uncertainly.
"Hard to say without checking, but we can grab and go in one trip if we pick smart."
"In time?"
"An hour..."
"Huh?"
"...30 minutes should do it."
30 minutes.
I ran a mental sim. Passage about 3-4 meters wide. Stack incoming zombies into corpse walls, hold, repeat... 30 minutes seemed doable. I stood up.
Plan set, and the mental image was straight out of a Jang Pan Pa vibe—pretty damn good. Time to show off the entrance-sealing skills I'd honed in the computer room.
Hmm. Probably won't need this much anyway.
"Hey."
Whoosh-
I tossed the nail gun from my shoulder to Dok Sa-yeon.
"Eek! Wh-what!"
Swish, thwack, thwack-
"She'll handle most of it, but it's for self-defense."
I told her, who barely caught it after nearly dropping it. I tapped my temple.
"You saw how it works? Stick it to their skull and press. Like scanning a barcode."
"Yes."
"Just so we're clear. If you fuck up or have an accident and come back alone without her or the meds..."
Shiiiing-
"No mercy?"
She nodded frantically like a broken doll at the knife paused before her nose.
Satisfied, I gave Jeong Da-jeong similar instructions. If shit hit the fan, smash a limb or two—or her head if needed.
Anyway, gotta get Dok Sa-yeon to job-change ASAP.
Unlike Da-jeong, no clue if it'd work the same, but we'd see. First, handle the task at hand.
Work never ended; somehow busier than before the world went to shit. We headed to the hospital.
...
Dok Sa-yeon thought: The world had sure as hell fallen apart.
The ER she'd seen during past shifts bore no resemblance to the one before her now.
Thud. Thud-thud. Thud-thud-
"Gr... ughhh..."
Nurse zombies wandering empty beds pointlessly, tap, tap, tap...
"Gek. Gek. Gek. Gek."
Doctor zombies pecking at powered-off computer keyboards.
"Groooaaargh...."
Patient zombies strapped quietly to beds, unlike their usual screaming rampages, now emitting low, phlegmy gurgles.
Dark bloodstains everywhere... ER blood spills weren't new, but walls, curtains, desks soaked in it felt alien.
If I'd been here, I'd be like that too...
The familiar-yet-unfamiliar moldy zombie stench, laced with death, nearly pulled her under—until
Clang-rattle-rattle-SLAM!
Cheongun slamming the fire shutter yanked her thoughts—and every zombie's attention—back.
"““Gek-uaagh!””"
Twitch-
Dok Sa-yeon shuddered as every zombie whipped around, eyes gleaming. But Cheongun, bathed in their stares, grinned wide, clanging his black-handled sword against his tomahawk axe in one hand each.
Clang, clang, clang.
"Air raid! Air raid!"
He charged into the zombies, spouting some nonsense about "all possessors mobilized!" His face beamed pure joy and bliss.
Realizing so effortlessly what she'd only fantasized about killing.
"Unni."
Dok Sa-yeon snapped out of her trance at Da-jeong's voice.
"...Over there."
She moved to the OR in the ER corner.
Screeech-
"Graaagh!"
"...!"
"Duck!"
Vrooom-CRACK!
A zombie lunged as the door opened, but Jeong Da-jeong smashed its skull clean from beside her.
Thud-
It crumpled, head caved in, face pulped beyond recognition—but the name tag was familiar.
"Ah..."
The doctor who'd groped and sexually harassed her at every chance. How many times had she wanted to rip that filthy mouth apart...
...Serves you right.
Crunch-
She ground a splattered brain chunk underfoot as she entered the OR.
Airway and suction gear, scalpels and suture sets, scissors, forceps...
"The one from last time... here it is."
She rummaged the cabinet for the old patient monitor, boxed it, then loaded the real prizes: familiar lidocaine, anesthetics, ketamine, temodar, morphine... up to vasopressors. All packed tight.
Cheongun was already back, ER cleared.
Swipe-
"Stimpak me quick."
She didn't know the term but used the skill as prepped.
Think the name while activating...
Price of Service LV.0 [Job Active Skill]
[Cost: Mental Power 1, 10% of target's current HP]
[Recovers 10% of target's max HP over time.]
[Increases target's HP recovery rate for a duration.]
Hand from the Shadows LV.0 [Job Active Skill]
[Cost: Mental Power 1, 10% of target's max HP]
[Reduces target's HP consumption rate for a duration.]
[Increases target's Mental Power consumption rate for a duration.]
She glanced at her skill window—then
Throb-throb.
"Euk-!"
Like a ladle scooping her brain, her hands suddenly held syringes filled with eerie blue and green liquids.
Guess I inject these.
Gripping her aching head, she expertly found Cheongun's vein and plunged one in.
Squiiiish-
The drug surged through, and he felt pain and HP drain instantly.
Job:Apocalypse Natural LV.4
Free Stats: 0/0
Status: Lowest-Grade Rapid Regeneration, Clumsy Combat Frenzy, Mild Panic (Deactivated)
EXP: 405.5/800
Cheongun grinned at the HP buffs, turning to the zombie horde swarming from the distant passage.
Sneer-
"Welcome!"
Dok Sa-yeon gawked as he charged the horde without hesitation, ignorant of death.
Slash-, slash-
Shlick, thump, thump.
Roll...
Wahahahaha!
What the hell was happening around that corner to make him laugh like that? Dok Sa-yeon didn't want to know...
That shameless, merciless bastard—she wished he'd just croak—but...
"...Hmm-."
What a free spirit.
With that, she headed to the pharmacy with Jeong Da-jeong.