Zombie-Style Combat
The dwarf zombies wielding cleavers charged at me. If they stayed still, they’d just get smacked by flying chairs, so they went all-in on the attack. But the gap in size was even bigger than I’d thought. ‘I learned this the hard way when I fought the giant…’
The guy was slaughtering zombies with one hand on his head. A giant’s movements were the perfect example of how to handle a bunch of weaker foes. Raw power could actually be a hindrance. What mattered was keeping the flow unbroken.
Whoosh—thud— The casually swung chair shattered bones and tore flesh. Yet it didn’t feel like effort. The dwarves had simply been standing in the chair’s path. Before long, the situation was resolved. Not a single dwarf remained standing. Total victory in every fight.
Baengnae, who met my eyes, came running over. Then she flinched and pointed at the dogs.
“Dogs, dogs drank it.”
‘Drank what?’ Following her finger, I saw the zombie dogs lapping up wine spilled from broken bottles. ‘Why are they drinking that?’
Of course, I hadn’t planned on letting them drink it. The special store’s wine gave random buffs even to summons. But alcohol was still alcohol. Excessive drinking would affect combat performance.
‘Ah…’ I immediately grasped the situation.
“You told them to drink, didn’t you?”
There was no way the dogs would suddenly start drinking on their own. Instead of answering, Baengnae pulled a wine bottle from her clothes.
“Heehee. This one’s Baengnae’s.”
Her eyes sparkled with expectation. She seemed to think that since the dogs had drunk, she should be allowed to as well—an odd bit of logic. I found it annoying and issued a ban.
“No. Muscle loss wine.”
Baengnae’s face fell at the unexpected reply. She’d gone to the trouble of arranging for the dogs to drink first, only for her perfect plan to fail. Eventually she just started whining.
“It’s Baengnae’s. Baengnae found it!”
“Found it, my ass. The dwarves probably had extras. By the way, who killed the wine dwarves? Huh? I did? Then it’s mine, right?”
Baengnae shot the dogs a wronged look. She looked ready to sneak the spilled wine if left alone. ‘Sigh…’
“Let’s use the wine as cooking ingredients. Baengnae can pick what she wants to eat. But no more weird tricks, got it?”
“Ung. ‘Kay.”
Baengnae’s expression brightened a little. Then she started jabbing her finger at the dogs like they’d done something terrible.
“Dogs, already drank.”
‘You’re the one who made them drink…’ Still, the message got across—she couldn’t drink, but the dogs had gulped down plenty, and she was sulking about it. She was positively brimming with petty spite.
‘Is the community the problem…’ The root of all evil: the community. She must’ve picked up those bizarre arguments from some weird troublemakers there. Maybe a little monitoring wouldn’t hurt.
“Fine. Any dishes made with wine, Baengnae gets to eat all of them. Even if the dogs beg, you’re not giving them any.”
“Hehe. ‘Kay.”
“Stop playing around and start infecting. The mid-tier group will arrive soon. We need to finish before then.”
“‘Kay.”
Baengnae sliced her arm with her sword. Time to build an army.
Soon, enemies armed with medium weapons drew close. But we were different from before.
“Everyone! Combat ready!”
Behind me stood seventy dwarf zombies in neat ranks, each holding a weapon. All of them created by Baengnae’s poison. I hadn’t noticed during the fight, but now that they were lined up, the ones who’d been holding wine bottles were noticeably larger. I appointed them squad leaders for easy identification.
Seeing the zombies bustling again reminded me of the dogs that had died and come back within a day. ‘You guys better last longer…’
The distance closed until the mid-tier group’s faces were clearly visible. I examined their weapons. Definitely a flashier lineup than the frontliners. Oil tanks connected to hoses, a giant dumpling steamer, an oversized torch, and even kebab skewers. ‘They put some thought into this.’
No wonder the mid-tier group had been late—they’d been merging with the stragglers. Rivals, yet still capable of minimal cooperation. But it was too late to change plans now.
“Everyone, charge!”
At my signal, the zombies surged forward. It looked like a street brawl between dwarf factions. They tangled together and started fighting like dogs. The ones to watch most were those with oil and torches. Injuries or burns were fine. But incineration meant something else entirely—it was a resource problem. When a zombie died and became a corpse, that corpse could be reused as material for other zombies. But if the body was permanently consumed, it was gone. The resource would vanish forever.
“Oil first. Then torches.”
Woof woof— Following my orders, the dogs were sent in to subdue the priority targets. My turn next. I glanced back to check on the fallen Baengnae. There was something I hadn’t known: secreting bodily fluids consumed stamina. That was why Baengnae, who had single-handedly created a legion of seventy zombies, was completely exhausted. I hadn’t noticed when she infected the wild dogs one by one. It seemed [Regenerative Cells] was also affected by stamina.
Of course, this situation was Baengnae’s own doing. If she hadn’t fed the dogs alcohol, she wouldn’t have needed to create seventy zombies alone. Still, now that I knew her ability depended on stamina, there was no reason not to build a training regimen around it. ‘I’ll need to increase the aerobic exercise ratio.’
“Rest here. I’ll be back.”
“Baengnae… go too…”
She could barely keep her eyes open, yet she answered properly.
“It’s fine. You can’t ruin the new recruits’ debut, can you? I’ll bring back some oil, so just sleep for a bit.”
“Ung… ‘Kay.”
Only after I told her to stay put did Baengnae finally settle down to rest. Her soft breathing reached my ears. I turned my gaze back to the battlefield. The zombie dogs were struggling against the oil dwarves. They still lacked the intelligence to figure out a counter on their own. ‘Sigh. She’s a troublemaker, but there’s no zombie like Baengnae.’
I headed into the fray.
Hissss— Hot oil sprayed across the ground. The zombie dogs leaped in every direction to avoid it. Clicking my tongue, I approached them.
“You haven’t caught even one? At this rate it’ll be dawn. I’ll show you once, so watch and learn.”
I held up a zombie I’d grabbed on the way and showed it to the dogs. Then I threw it at an oil-tank dwarf.
“Bite!”
Whoosh! Hissss— Oil sprayed toward the thrown zombie. Part of its body melted. But that didn’t matter. I already knew zombies barely felt pain. The thrown zombie flew through the oil and bit the enemy. Because the zombie itself was burning hot from the oil, the dwarf couldn’t endure the attack and rolled on the ground.
“Kek…”
One oil dwarf died in an instant. Watching this, the dogs learned and began grabbing nearby zombies to throw at their targets. So they did have the intelligence to learn when taught.
“Finish up, then. I’m going elsewhere.”
I wandered the battlefield, jumping into spots where we were being pushed back. The torch-wielders proved less threatening than expected. Lightly scorching zombies with fire didn’t suddenly set them ablaze. The fight ended more easily than anticipated. Trying to kill zombies with skewers and steamers had been a terrible matchup from the start. In the end, no zombies died.
‘Hmm…’ Still, there were a few that made me question whether they were truly alive. The zombies thrown into the oil sprayers. Ten of them, their bodies excessively melted. Feeding them corpses would let them recover slowly, but the real problem was that their mouths and digestive systems had melted too.
“This is tricky… In a way, these guys are like martyrs. Turning them into corpses just feels wrong.”
Of course, regular zombies were expendable. We couldn’t coddle every single mob while playing the game, could we? But as a member of Korean society, it felt uncomfortable to treat those who had acted like martyrs so poorly. ‘They were martyred, after all…’ At the very least, I thought they deserved to die gloriously fighting on another battlefield. In the end, after much deliberation, I reached a conclusion.
◈ Restores melted zombie tissue
◈ Quantity: 10
Thanks to Cat-nim’s sponsorship, I currently held ten enhancement potions. This should solve the problem. The numbers matched perfectly too. Just then, Baengnae approached from behind, yawning.
“Haam… Baengnae slept.”
She saw the potions in my hand and immediately understood what I was worried about. Then, out of nowhere, she fell into thought herself. ‘What now…’
“Uung…”
After finishing her thoughts, she suddenly took off her boots and showed them to me. ‘Ah! I forgot about those!’
The [Deep Well Boots] I’d received as a sponsorship from Cat-nim. I’d completely forgotten because ownership had transferred to Baengnae.
I remembered ignoring the description because it sounded like nonsense. I asked Baengnae again to confirm her intent.
“You sure? Then you’ll have to go barefoot again.”
Baengnae stared for a moment at the zombies writhing on the oil-soaked ground. Then she nodded.
“Do it.”
‘What a spiteful kid, doing something nice for once.’
When I activated the item, a massive well suddenly appeared where the boots had been. An ominous darkness filled the well.
“I guess we just throw them in here?”
As I moved to pick up the zombies, Baengnae stepped forward.
“Baengnae will do it. They’re Baengnae’s.”
“Whatever, suit yourself.”
Baengnae threw the zombies into the well one by one.
Splash— Splash— Splash— Splash—
After ten splashes, strange laughter echoed from inside the well.
“Kihihihi. Kihihi. Kihihihi!”
I scratched my head. Apparently some kind of ghost lived in there. But soon the laughter changed strangely.
“Kihi? Kihi… Kihaaa!”
Crack— Crackle— Crunch— Creak—
“Kyaaaaah! Kyaaaaah!”
Splash splash splash splash splash splash splash splash
A brief silence. Then a massive hand shot out of the well. Two hands, three, four—six hands in total grabbed the well’s rim and pulled the body upward.
Crack— Crackle— The stones forming the well collapsed as the entity inside revealed itself. A face as large as the giant hands. It had the head of a large dwarf.
Thud— The monster pushed itself out of the well and collapsed onto the ground. It looked like it had lost strength from the sudden weight after swimming out. ‘What the hell are you…’
It looked up at me and opened and closed its mouth. After making a few small sounds like it was learning to speak, the monster finally formed words. Its voice overlapped as if multiple beings were speaking in chorus.
“W-we won. We ate everything!”
‘Hmm…’ One thing was certain: it was a zombie. Because despite its grotesque appearance, I felt no sense of foreignness toward it. If anything, the well behind it that had troubled it looked more hateful, which confirmed it. ‘A zombie… So this is what “become one and grow greater” means? Where exactly is it greater? Did the meaning of the word change?’
Anyway, what had happened was clear. The zombie martyrs had devoured the ghost living in the well. And they had become something as one. I didn’t know the process, but gaining a zombie larger than myself was worth celebrating.
“Good job! Now destroy the well!”
“Uwooooh!”
The giant stood up and began kicking the well where the ghost had lived. It seemed its intelligence was low. But no need to worry—zombies were originally dumb. I lost interest in it and started cleaning up the battlefield. Stage 3-2 wasn’t over yet. I still needed to collect weapons and distribute corpses to the injured. Once I finished my tasks, Baengnae stepped forward. She held up three fingers to the giant.
“Me, dogs, you.”
Whether it understood or not, the giant took a respectful posture toward Baengnae. The hierarchy was set. Satisfied, Baengnae ordered the zombie dogs to fetch the kebab skewers the dwarves had been using. Then she handed them to the giant.
“Use these!”
‘What the… You just slept and now you’re taking credit? And I was planning to use those skewers myself…’ I shot Baengnae a glare. Then I quietly added another set to her training regimen.